Eced 3.3

Planning For The Heart And Soul:
Psychosocial Development In Action
NAEYC: Standards for professional development

The following for NAEYC for early childhood professional are addressed in this
chapter.
Standard 1: Promoting Child development and learning
Standard 4: Using developmentally effective approaches to connect
with children and families.
Standard 5:2 Using content knowledge to Build meaningful
curriculum.
NAEYC: Code for ethical conduct
These are the sections for the NAEYC code of ethical conduct that apply to the
topics of this chapter.
Core values: We have made a commitment to recognize that children and
adults achieve their highest potential in the context of relationships that are
based on trust and respect.
Section I:
P. 1.2 We should care for and educate children in positive emotional and
social environment that are cognitively stimulating and supports
each child culture, language, ethnicity, and family structure.
Section II:
I-2.3 to welcome l family members and encourage them to participate
in the program, including involvement in shared decision making.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
➢ LO 1 Define psychosocial domain and the major developmental
elements.
➢ LO 2 Examine the central elements of children's emotional growth and

effective approaches when planning curriculum.
➢ LO 3 Examine the central elements of children's social growth and

➢ LO 4 Examine the central elements of children's spiritual growth and

➢ LO 5 Discuss emotional intelligences as a special topic of psychosocial

curriculum.
PLANNING FOR THE HEART AND SOUL: PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN ACTION
The development of the psychosocial Domain

The heart and soul of any good program for young children as they struggle with 1. The
Reality of Emotions. 2.The awareness of the need for social skills. 3.The creative Urge and
4.Acknowledgement of the Spirit Together this four areas comprise the psychosocial or
effective side development. The Psychosocial Domain is the third area od human
development. It includes the development of Emotions, temperament, and social skills.
Areas of self concept and self esteem are also in this realm. "Family, Friends, the
community, the culture and the larger society ate particularly central to the psychosocial
domain. For example cultural differences in appropriate sex roles or in family structure are
part of this domain (Berger. 2009) The domain is sometimes labelled affective as it deals
with feelings, or socioemotional as the social and emotional areas are key components.
Affective growth takes place in the context of personal identity. Identify begins with family -
every aspect of child rearing such as how child held, bathed, fed, dressed, and sleeps, lays a
foundation for children of who they are. Families hand down beliefs, attitudes and
behaviours and then hand over their children to us for time, so identity development
becomes 2 shared responsibility.
It is primarily trough psychosocial experience that children learn who they are; only then
can they see successfully in relation to others. Social and competence predict, in part,
school readiness
Therefore, early environments and cur this competence.
Defining Psychosocial Experiences

-the first thing one notices on entering an early child’s the children at play. quick survey of
who is playing together, whether there is crying or fighting, and how happy or sad the
children look. The overview gives an immediate sense of the affective climate in the early
childhood settings.
• Emotional. Toddler are giggles as she runs her hands across the water table, then
cries after she splashes soapsuds in her eyes and needs to be
• Social. Pre-schooler Danny wants his favourite red wagon, so Pat, the student
teacher, helps him negotiate a turn with Christa.
• creative. kindergartners Fabio, Erika, and Benjy work steadily to build a tall, intricate
block structure. When it is finished, the three children stand back and marvel at their
creation.
• spiritual. The children see a nest being built in the backyard of family child care
home” How do the birds know how to make the nest?' wonder the children. make
daily checks and then hear the peeping sound of the newly hatched baby birds. It’s
magic!" whispers Niagara, and the children sit quietly and reverently every time they
see the mother return.
Together, these factors—emotional mood, social dynamics, creative, and spiritual tone—
define the overall atmosphere in which children play and work. The components of
psychosocial development are woven together in the developing child. Children who are
sensitive to their feelings and moods are able to begin understanding other people and,
thus, become more socially effective and successful. Children with experience. To many
creative endeavours have the self-confidence that comes from having an outlet for self-
expression. Children who are spiritually curious are likely to ask questions such as "How did
the little seed do that?" when gardening, or they want to write a letter to their dead pet to
make sure all is at peace.
The division into the three domains (physical-motor, cognitive-language, and
psychosocial) makes development easier to study, but growth is holistic, not piecemeal.
Note the connections here:
Creative/Physical. Physical skills can define and limit
• children's creative abilities. Two-year-old Andrea, whose physical skills do not yet
include balancing objects, plays with blocks by piling them on top of one another,
filling her wagon with blocks, and dumping them or lugging them from place to
place.
• Social/Cognitive. It is hard for 5-year-old Karen to share her best friend Luther with
other children. Her intellectual abilities do not yet allow her to consider more than
one idea at a time, so she cannot understand that Luther can be her friend and
Dana's at the same time.
• Emotional/Language. Tyler is upset with his teacher's refusal to let him go outdoors
during story time. "I hate you!" he screams, "and you aren't the boss of me!"
Children learn to label and express their emotions through words.
• Spiritual/Creative. The children make their daily trek to the henhouse as soon as
outside time begins. They first gasp as they discover a raccoon has pried open the
wire and killed their pet. After all the queries about what happened, Ellie speaks up,
It is difficult to measure the child's growth in these areas it is easier to see physical
growth, cognitive skills, gauge development. After all, a child has grown 40 . ches tall Or not,
can rote count to 20 numbers, and speaks in full sentences or in short Affective expressions
are more subtle and subway feel rejected and sad if no one greets as he enters the
playhouse. He may mistake the hilt children's busy-ness as an act of exclusion and withdraw
lash out. In reality, the children did not even notice he was there; his social skill expression
and self-identity were based on a misunderstanding—one that can change dynamically with
a teacher's input or change of scene.
A Sense of Self
Traditionally, early childhood educators have concerned themselves with children's well-
being, knowing that in the early years the foundations must be laid for children to
understand themselves and others. Social growth, creative expression, and experience with
a wide range.
Growing a Sense of Self

Age Growth focus Help Children with
Infants To relationship Attachment
Toddler Awareness Self regulation

Twos Curiosity Interactions with others
Preschool Self-concept Testing and evaluating self
Authority Testing their limits in play,
Making friend
Kindergarten Self-in-the-world Feeling effective Managing failure/mistakes,

Finding their strengths
Primary Competence managing , failures ,mistake finding their
FIGURE 14-1 Children's emotional and social growth is an ongoing challenge as they enter
new settings in their expanding of emotions also help children develop a strong self-concept
with positive self-esteem.
What Research Tells Us?

Building self-image is complex, multidimensional, and ever changing. It affects everything we
do and is affected by everything we do. Crucial to children's self-image is how children
interpret the response of the environment to their actions. And much of a self-image is based
on the way society views the child. Teachers play an important role as they provide an
essential ingredient of self-image: the quality of human interactions.
Children need to have several key experiences in the early years to develop and
consolidate a sense of self (see Figure 14-1). Psychosocial theory (see Erikson, Chapter 4)
posits that the early years are critical in the development of conscience; formative
experiences must shape a child in terms of moral worth, wrestling with good/nice and bad/
mean. autonomy of the toddler gives way to the initiative of the pre-schooler and
competence of the school-aged child. These developments coincide with a longer attention
span and a sense of pride in accomplishments of the tasks that require concentration. "Self
esteem is the foundation for practice and then mastery" (Berger, 2009).
Sociocultural theory (see Vygotsky, Chapter 4) as-sets that children must learn the
ways of their culture to be grounded enough to find their place in the world.
Assert research confirms that children with high more self likely to be securely attached and
ha are attentive to their needs (Booth-LaForce1402006). J' and Emotional adults "(Koralek,
2011)21st , requires century neurological Work to regulate self.
Research show that self image is correlated with poor mental health, poor academic
achievement, and delinquency Many experiences can contribute to low self image education
recognizes that all of us are to take our place in society. Our sense of self is influenced by
prevailing social values, and our social skills are shaped by social practices. The social realities
of sexism, ethnocentrism, and heterosexist Shape children's self-identity and the formation
of perjury and discriminatory behaviour (York, 2003).
The chronic stress of neglect or abuse, poverty or family disruption may all lead
contribute to poor self-image. To a child's negative experiences that in contrast, a positive
self-concept is correlated with mental health, academic achievement, and prose behaviour
(Salmivalli et al., 2005). As children's spontaneous play becomes more goal-oriented, children
encounter success in making projects and making friends.
A psychosocial curriculum prepares children to be rive and involved. It promotes social action
and problem solving so that children develop into involved citizens with a positive self-
identity.
• With infants and toddlers, the emphasis is on relationships.

• In preschool, programs emphasize emotional expression and social self-regulation
• For school-age programs, it is often known as character education and usually involves
conflict resolution and teamwork.
Affirming Identity
As children experience messages from others and through their perceptions, they construct
an understanding of race, ethnicity, gender, and ability. This shapes their self-image and, by
extension, their relationships to others.
Self-Esteem
Self esteem refers to an individual's sense Of personal worth and an acceptance of whom one
is that helps one make judgments as they confront the world. TO the extent that children feel
worthy and capable, they are ready to succeed. If children disapprove of themselves, they
may feel like failures and expect to do poorly.
Self esteem develops as a reflection of experiences. of way people respond to you gives you
some your Importance or value. New born infants have no
Psychosocial Development in Action 4.21 concept of self and worth. A young child who has
positive experiences with others is more likely to h than one who has felt unloved age a higher
or unnoticed. Sense of self-esteem
The "Four I's" "Four I's" refer to four components

1. hold a sense of my identity.
2. I Have a sense of my uniqueness.
3. I feel a sense of self (power).
4. I carry a sense of belonging (connectedness).
Early in life, self-esteem is tied to family, friends, and other important people, such as
teachers. Curriculum can be developed to foster each of these characteristics (see Figure 14-
2).
When children enter the classroom, the message they receive is "l am important and
this is my place." physical environment, the daily schedule, and the curriculum are designed
to give all children per-mission to express themselves. This gives children a sense of identity
and uniqueness.
• Initiative. Children are encouraged to initiate their learning, to make contact with
others, to take action, and to make choices. Power is important to young children;
they want to know how to take (and when to let go) of control, and how to use power
to get what they want and need.
• Independence. Self-management tasks of dressing, eating, and toileting are given an
important place in the curriculum. Children are assisted in taking of their belongings
and in developing independent judgment about events and activities. Every culture
and group has its own intricate rules about when and how to be independent, and an
early childhood group can give them experience.
• Interaction. Social interaction has a high priority in the program. The room and yard
are busy places, with children moving about and talking among themselves and with
adults. Conflicts are accepted as a natural consequence of social life. In the spirit of
John Dewey (Chapter l), democratic group living encourages children to interact. In
respect for cultures that value collaboration and group harmony, such interaction
fosters a consciousness of interdependence. The need for relationships with other
people is crucial, and interaction gives children a sense of connectedness.
Children with a positive identity are ready to meet life's challenges. have the self-confidence
to deal with the reality of emotions, the changing nature of social interaction, the joys of
creativity, and serenity of spirituality.
Emotional Skill Development

self Esteem
1. Identity: Look at what I can do, the noise I can

2. make, the weight I can pick up and move!"
3. connectedness: "l can make the same snakes as you, we can all make cakes."
4. Uniqueness I’m pouring mine you’re dripping yours and she is squeezing her stuff
you're out dripping her fingers! “Power: "I for can the make tidal this wave! “Water
go anywhere I want; look out for the tidal waves.
Deal with feelings
1. Identification (to notice and label): "Does it feel very smooth, slippery, slidy? Is it soft
and soothing?"
2. Mastery (to accept): "She took your baker's dough and that made you angry. You can
tell her you don't like it when she grabs what you are using."
3. Expressing (to express appropriately):Child: "Tami has all the big pitchers."
Teacher: "How can you let her know you want one?"
Child: "And she splashed me two times!"

Teacher: "If you feel too crowded, you need to tell her so."
4. Feelings (to deal with others): "Wheel! Yuk! Mmm! Ha!
Curriculum: Activity (Use of Sense)

• Use rocks of various sizes with balances, so that children can touch and hear when
they move things around
• A malleable material such as play dough can be used first alone, then with tools.
• Make "bootblack," a mixture of corn starch and water, in separate tubs for each child.
Children can manipulate it in their own ways.
• Water play offers the child choices: pour into any of several containers, fill or empty
the jug, use a funnel or a baster to squirt the water, make waves or splash hands.
• When finger-painting, the teacher can describe what it appears the child is feeling.
Children can identify their feelings as the teacher describes them while they use the materials.
Whether the sensory material is clay, soapy water, or fine sand, the issues of ownership and
use of materials arise. Then, teachers reflect children's feelings and help them take
responsibility for their own feelings.
As children begin to use the sensory materials, they need to communicate to others. Usually
the issues are about wanting more material and personal space.
When children share in a sensory activity, such as a feeling walking through tubs of
small pebbles, sand, and soapsuds, they have the delightful experience of enjoying théir own
feelings with another.
Curriculum for Emotional Growth

As discussed in the previous three chapters, the curriculum for the emotional domain needs
to be built around key developmental concepts.
The Development of Emotions
Emotions are the feelings a person has—joy and sorrow, love and hate, confidence and fear,
loneliness and belonging, anger and contentment, frustration and satisfaction. They are
responses to events, people, and circumstances. Feelings are an outgrowth of what a person
perceives Is happening. Emotionally healthy people learn to give expression to their feelings
in appropriate ways. They do not allow their feelings to overshadow the rest of their
behaviour. The optimal time to learn these skills is in the early years.
Research in brain development (Rushton et al., 2010; Thompson, 2001) has identified key
areas of the brain involved in emotional expression and development. An area in the limbic
section of our brains is the control centre of our emotions. Two almond-shaped organs behind
our eyes, called the amygdala, are in constant communication with the rest of the brain (for
thinking and perceiving
The emotional brain scans everything happening to us from moment to moment to

see if something that
Happen in the past that made us sad or angry is similar.
Is what happening right now. If so amygdala in calls an alarm to declare an emergency

to mobilized in a split second to act. And it can do so, in brain time, more rapidly than the
thinking brain takes to figure out what is going on which is why people can get into arrange
and do something inappropriate that they wish they had.
Children experience this constantly and educator must help children develop
dimension of emotional intelligences (Goleman, 1995): self-awareness, handling emotions
generally, motivation, Empathy and social skills (see Topic later in this chapter). grow
overtime with motivation and experience both at work.
• In infancy, there are only two identifiable emotions: contentment and distress.
Infants respond in agitated emotion whether wet, hungry, hurt, or bored.
• Gradually, the expression of the emotion becomes refined and varies with the
situation. more Curiosity and anger begin to appear.
• A toddler's cry of frustration is different from the cry of discomfort or hunger.
Emotions such as frustration and doubt are apparent.
• As children become pre-schoolers, their emotional expressions change as they
gain control over some of their feelings and learn new ways to express them.
New emotions appear toward the end of the third year: pride, shame,
embarrassment, and even guilt.
• By primary school, children can show all these emotions but are learning to
keep their expression in check. Self-regulation and an awareness of how others
perceive and react to them are taking place.
These strong external forces include parents, family members, teachers, and friends.
help the young child learn socially acceptable behaviour and can mediate aggressive or
withdrawing behaviour. Much of what children learn is by example and modelling (see
Chapter 4). Therefore, children learn more from adult models than from simply being told
how to behave and feel. emotional foundation of the first five years is carried forth into
school-age, as a friend, the peer group, and validation from adult’s help build resilience and
coping skills for dealing with stress.
Emotional skills
The emotional skills children learn in their early years are substanial.research shows that
some emotions ,interest disgust ,distress to name a few are observable in the new born and
it is posited that all the basic emotions are present within the first few weeks of life .include
happiness, interest, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust. more complex emotions of
shame, guilt, envy, and pride emerge later, once children have had the social experiences of
observing these emotions in others or have been in situations that might evoke such s.
expressions have been Observed in a Wide range of cultural and ethnic groups.
In early childhood, children learn to respond to new situations and to react and connect with
a teacher, both very emotional experiences. Good teachers stimulate an emotion response
to themselves and curriculum .that is a balance between interest and overwhelming fear.
Creating the "right" emotional conditions is a primary way to gain access to a child's capacity
for learning. Young children are not yet limited by standards of conduct that prevent them
from sincere and truthful self-expression. Teachers observe children and learn how they feel
about facing their feelings, the feelings of others, and the range of skills categorized as
emotional growth.
Ability to Deal with Feelings
Dealing with feelings involves four steps. Each step builds on the other so that they follow a
developmental sequence; the learning that takes place at one level affects the development
of what follows (see Figure 14-2).
To Notice and Label Feelings
enlist ability is the first step. Tie sobbing I or 2 year old may have many reasons for feeling
distress. As families recognize the cuties of hunger, hurt, and fear, they may name these
feelings. Tie child learns to notice what the feeling is and recognize it. Teachers know how to
"read" children's faces and body language to give them the words for and ways to express
those feelings (see Figure 14-3). Toddlers and 2 year olds can be taught simple words for sad,
mad, and glad. Pre-schoolers are quite verbal and curious about language and ready to learn
words that describe a wider range of feelings. can learn "lonely," "scared," "silly," "sad," and
"happy." Labelling what one feels inside is a critical skill to learn. It is a healthy first grader
who can say, "I have tried to cut this string three times and the scissors aren't working. I am
frustrated. I need some help!"
To Accept Feelings
Accepting feelings is step two. Teachers recognize that children are capable of strong
feelings. Children can feel overwhelmed by the very strength and intensity of a feeling, be it
one of anger or of love. Acceptance involves learning how to handle the depth of the feeling
and not let it overpower them.
Learning to Read Feelings

Feeling Behavioural Definitions
1.fear pale face, alert eyes, tense, mouth, rigid
body
2. surprise Wide eyes, eyebrows uplifted,
involuntary cry or scream, quick intake
of breath.
3.Anger Red face, eyes staring, face taut, fists
and jaw clenched,
voice harsh or yelling. large gesture
4. Joy Smiling face, shining eyes, free and easy
body movements, laughing
5. Pride Head held high, smiling face, jaunty walk
or strut tendency to announce or point
out.
6.Embarrassment Red face, glazed and downcast tight
mouth, tense body, and jerky
movements, soft voice
7.Sadness Unsmiling body, slow face, or small
downturned
movements, mouth, soft glazed and
trebly, teary voice. Eyes, crying or
rubbing eyes, limp body, slow or small
movements, soft and tremble voice
8. Anxiety puckered brow, pale face, tight mouth,
whiny voice, jerky movements, lack of or
difficulty in concentrations
9. Curiosity Raised brow, shining eyes, perhaps
tense body in absorption of the object of
curiosity; often hand movements to
touch and pick up object; sometimes
mouth agape.
changing nature of feelings is also part of acceptance; it can be a source of comfort

and relief for young children to discover that the strong emotion they are experiencing will
pass. Adults who work with young children help them work through those feelings safely.
For instance, 3-year-old Carlos feels sad as his mother prepares to leave. His teacher
walks them to the door, then bends down and puts an arm around him as his mother waves
good-bye. Acknowledging that he is sad, the teacher stays with Carlos, reminding him that his
mother returns and that the teacher will take care of him while he is at school. Because the
child is allowed to feel the sadness that is natural in leave-taking, the tense feelings are over
in a few minutes. The teacher smiles and encourages Carlos to find something fun to do. Once
he has recovered his composure, the teacher can point out that he's "okay now," and Carlos
can feel proud for having lived through and grown from saying good-bye. Acknowledgment
Of the feeling and his ability to accept it help give Carlos the confidence to move on.
To express feeling in an Appropriate way
The third Step is to express feelings appropriately. Expressing feelings appropriately is a two-
part process. First, children must feel free to express their feelings, second they must learn
ways of expression that are suitable to their age and to the situations. Many beginning
teachers are uncomfortable because children express themselves so strongly (and often
aggressively). Yet the child who is passive and unable to express feelings freely should be of
equal concern and should be encouraged in self-expression.
When teachers create a safe emotional climate, they can effectively help children learn to
understand and express themselves. "I can see you are upset about Joaquin taking the zoo
animal," you might say, "But I cannot let you hit him—and I will not let him hit you, either."
As children grow, they acquire the modes of expression that are developmentally appropriate
for their age.
• Babies and toddlers without language cry and call for an immediate response;
• Two-year-olds express their displeasure by pushes and shoves, which need quick
intervention; Pre-schoolers begin to use their verbal power and argue; a teacher can
get close to observe first and then intervene if necessary.
• By age 6 or 7, children learn to tell others—clearly and with reasons—what they are
feeling. Now the teacher must monitor and mediate as needed.
The ability to express feelings is intact, but the methods of expression change as
children grow. Expression of feeling also has a cultural dimension.
To deal with the feelings of Others
This is the culminating step in the development of emotional skills. Feelings are the spark of
life that flash of anger, the “aah-ah" of discovery, the thrill of accomplishment, the hug of
excitement. Because recognizing and expressing emotions are closely interwoven, children
who can distinguish among different emotions and have some experience in taking the
perspective of others by observing their feelings develop empathy. With increasing social
awareness and decreasing egocentrism in the school-age, concrete operational period (see
Chapter 4), two other emotions emerge: empathy, a true understanding of the feelings of
another; and antipathy, intense dislike of Other people. Toddlers may cry or gather near the
teacher and playmate is hurt or sad; pre-schoolers smile at another's laughter; and
kindergartners imagine themselves vividly in another's predicament during a story. in distress.
Empathy is affected by early experience and needs nurturing to grow (see social section).
Ability to Handle Change
It is remarkable that, as one of the most adaptable species on the planet, we humans resist
change so much. Even as our brains are programmed to find pattern and sameness, it is
change that is inevitable. my very act of being born is Children learn to appreciate and
understand feelings when teachers who can show them how to deal with feelings and
changes accept their feelings.
change, marking the beginning of a life in which stress is part of the act of developmental
achievement. Witness the toddler's numerous falls when learning to walk, the separator of
parent and child at the nursery school doorway, the concentration and frustrations of the 6-
year-old on roller skates. A measure of positive stress encourages a child to strive and achieve,
to find out and discover.
Stress can arise from several factors—both internal (severe colic) or external (moving to a
new home). Some stresses are acute in a child's life, such as a hospitalization, whereas others
are chronic, such as living in an alcoholic household. Inadequate housing, poverty, and war
are ecological stressors. Family changes—the birth of a sibling, death or loss of a close family
member, marriage problems, and divorce—are personal stressors. Inept parenting practices
that neglect or abuse children are especially troublesome because they hurt children and
provide them with poor role models for learning how to cope with stress (see Chapter 15).
Teachers can help children accept change in several ways:

• Anticipate changes. Identify the process children can engage. "Junko, your mother will
be leaving soon. we will go looking for that favourite puzzle after you say good-bye to
her." e Notify children of changes in the daily routine. “We will not be having snacks
inside today; let's use the patio table instead."
• Model acceptance unanticipated changes. When children are informed that change is
anticipated, accepted, and not necessarily disrupting, they me more relaxed about
handling the unpredictable. Now "Everyone oops, needs we didn't to either think find
it would a raincoat be raining. And boots or choose something inside."
• Be a resource for helping children cope. “It’s okay to cry when you are sad or scared,
Akbar. It is hard to figure out what to do when they say they do not want to play."
Ability to Exercise Judgment

The ability to exercise judgment is an important skill because it helps children to make
decisions and figure out what to do in new situations. On entering a program, a child faces
many decisions: Where shall I play? Who Shall I play with? Who will I turn to for help when
I need it? Judgment is selecting what to do, when to do it, with whom to do it, and when
to stop.
Making Choices- Making choices is an essential part decision making. Children are
bombarded with choices in America—too many choices, some people say. Children must
decide about issues that, in other times, only adults handled. But children have difficult
discriminating between big choices and little choices. Every choice is a big one for most
children. Learning to make good choices takes thought, guidance, and lots of practice.
There is no easy way to teach children how to make decisions because each situation must
be dealt with on an individual basis. judgment a child exercises choosing a friend to play
with today may have other!. Factors to consider tomorrow. Instead, teachers help
children base their decisions on the best judgment they : are capable of in each instance.
One way to encourage decision making is to provide opportunities for choice (see "Focus
on Skills)
Internalizing Messages Internalizing messages is second part of exercising judgment.

These are the internal messages children are calling on when deciding on course of action.
Some cultures are open in their dis, i play of emotions, whereas others are reserved. must
be respected and taken into consideration (sag Diversity Box)
Feelings :What if the Message are Different?
"The appropriate expression of feeling has many definitions ,over time children see many
different ways people express their likes and preference , their dislike and opinions . Early
childhood education program can inadvertently use practices that counter parents effort.
At the same time ,many familiars do not have articulated explanations of their child
rearing . Both may have strong ideas about display of emotions. Encouragement to act
out every emotion is not appropriate , for instance ,for many Africa American children
,"Living under oppressive conditions mandates learning to handle oppression in ways..
Such as to learn where to express feelings Who it is safe to let know your feelings," says
cooper (1992). "Their @aspected, not viewed as a challenge."
Strong expression of feelings is seen as a sign of disrespect to adult, particularly those of
authority, such as teachers. Praising a child for self-expression and avoiding negative
remarks may seem fine to a teacher, but Chinese parents may see it as their duty to tell
children their errors in direct language (Chua, 2011).
Will the child's emotional wellbeing be put at risk If the messages are different? Children
are resilient, and by the end of the early childhood years, they have already learned that
different circumstances call for different behaviours .But in this early years if the
differences between home and school expectation are too great ,children are confused,
and it leads to difficulties and misunderstanding. Think of yourself as a learner rather than
an expert and inquire about family practices around expression of emotions. Share what
you have seen as children achieve competencies self-expression. The most important
element in bridging children's world is for the adults who care for them to be comfortable
and accepting differences.
Self-regulation is the third aspect of judgment. Research suggests that children can
develop the capacity to plan and guide themselves (Rothbart & Rueda, 2005). In contrast
to self-control, in which we teach children to respond to an external rule, children's self-
regulation is a combination of the cognitive and emotional realms.
During the early childhood years, there is a great increase in self-regulation. Children are
increasingly able to control their behaviour in familiar situations, focus their attention,
and comply with external requests. Such self-directed thinking and problem solving is an
essential life skill. "Focus and self control may be as important as IQ" (Galisnky, 2010).
Teacher can encourage this process by:

• Giving children cues to be alert and selves. Start circle time with a song that can move
toward and clap with.
• Creating activities that require that children practice shifting their children pretend
roles and then switching themselves.
• Establishing some routines that require hold information in their minds memory.
Story time is good for this, asking them to think about a detail or character and call
it back as the story concludes .
• Working regularly to help develop inhibitory control. is what most people think of
when they hear "self-regulation," as this control enables children to resist the
inclination to do one thing and instead do the "right" thing. Controlling attention and
emotions while also controlling behaviour is especially difficult in conflict, so teachers
need to be involved in children's disagreements. skill can help with failure (stop the
urge to give up) and with hurting (stop the impulse to hit back).
Enjoying One's Self and One's Power

Teachers want children to feel powerful—to know that they can master their lives and feel
confident in their abilities. feeling of power is particularly important in the early years, when
so much of what a child can both literally and figuratively.
Responsibility and limits, however, go hand in hand with power. The child who is strong
enough to hit someone has to learn not to use that strength unnecessarily the child who
shouts with glee also finds out that noise is unacceptable indoors .By Holding children gain
the self regulation skills that allow them to enjoy their power and accept its limitations .
Superheroes Superhero is a kind of fantasy power play most teachers encounter. Common to
children as young as 2 years old, superhero play is exciting and rowdy, usually active and loud,
playacting of heroic roles that give children powers they lack in everyday life. Superhero play
attracts children who are (Hoffman 2004).
Investigating power and autonomy
• Balancing the desire for power with the need for friendship
• Testing physical limits
• Exploring feelings
• Answering big questions about the world, such as:
• ll."hat is right and what is wrong, good, and bad?
• What is fair and what is unfair?
• What is life and what is death?
• What is a boy and what is a girl?
• What is real and what is fantasy?
Imaginary Companions Imaginary companions often Join superheroes, although they just as
often accompany' children on their own. second type of fantasy play sometimes concerns
adults. Piaget believed that they reflected immature thinking of the preoperational stage and
should disappear around the time a child began elementary school (see Chapter 4). Imaginary
friends offer companionship and entertainment, and can help children through difficult times
(see Figure 14-4).
(The creation of an imaginary companion is healthy and relatively common [Children with
imaginary companions .appear to be less shy, more able to focus their attention, and to have
advanced social understanding when compared with other children. The bottom line is that
although imaginary companions and other fantasies have sometimes been interpreted as
signs of emotional disturbance, a break with reality, or even the emergence of multiple
personalities, they are really just a variation on the theme of all pretend play.
Children need guidance to learn how to express themselves appropriately and exercise their
growing powers responsibly. Fantasy play is an important component of children's cognitive
and emotional development. Teachers can help children learn to appreciate and enjoy
themselves. Each time a child is acknowledged, a teacher fosters that sense of uniqueness:
"Carrie, you have a great sense of humour!" "Eric, your power bracelets are helping to collect
all the trash here." "Freddie, I love the way you and your 'dog-friend Dan' sing so clearly."
Saying it aloud reinforces in children the feeling that they are enjoyable to themselves and to
others.
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to bounce back or recover from adversity. Resiliency is a kind of
protective mechanism, something that allows a child to "get back
Superhero Play :Exercising Power Responsibly

• Help children recognize humane characteristics of superheroes.
Discuss real heroes and heroines.
• Talk about the pretend world of acting.
• Limit the place and time for superhero play.

• Explore related concepts.
• Help children de-escalate rough-and-tumble play.
• Make it clear that aggression is unacceptable.
• Give children control over their lives.

Praise children's attempts at mastery On the horse" after being thrown. Research indicates
children are more •successful in dealing with stressor than those who are not (Mayer ne;
2009). at the Terrible same time, circumstances some children can who over whelm everyone
difficulties become happy, healthy adults. children's capacity to develop resiliency but
teachers can help by knowing the protective mechanism , that promote resiliency. These ode:
• The child's personality and behaviour: Help a child find his strengths and sense of
humour.
• The family attributes: Find someone or something that reflects the child's capacity to
succeed and meet high expectations (Dweck, 2006).
• The social environment: Notice and comment on effort rather than ability to develop
a "growth mind-set" (Pawlina & Stanford, 2011).
Resilient children have hope and good self-esteem. Both of these are under the influence of
the teacher and curriculum.
Effective Approaches for Curriculum for Emotional Growth
Considerations
There are several key components in helping children develop healthy emotional growth:
1. Acquiring good patterns is an adult's first step.

Reflect on these questions:
• Are you a person who labels others?

• What happens to you when a child is difficult?
• How do you feel like reacting when a child does not meet your expectations?
Identifying strengths and positive labels for every child helps teachers deal better
with the emotions and behaviour of the children in their care.
2. Developing and wing a a feeling" vocabulary makes words of an emotional nature part
of the program vocabulary. Identify some of the feelings children express; then
describe how the children look and act when experiencing those emotions (see Figure
14-3 and Special Topic on emotional intelligence at the end of this chapter).
3. Making the classroom a comfortable place for children is the third step to a healthy
emotional climate. Teachers can also become more attuned to the emotional climate
in the classroom by knowing when and how feelings are expressed:
• What causes children in the class to become excited? Frightened? Calm? Loud? How
does this knowledge guide curriculum planning? How can it help a teacher handle an
unplanned event or change in the schedule?
• How do I anticipate children's emotional behaviour? How do I follow through?
• What can teachers do to handle children's emotional outbursts and crises?
• What happens to the rest of the class when one teacher is occupied in an emotional
incident with one or more children?
• What do I do when a child shows emotion? How do I feel when a child displays
emotion?
• What types of emotions are most common with the young child?
When teachers perceive that child are ready to talk about their feelings, small group
discussions or individual conversations can be helpful.
"It really hurts to bend your knees now that you have scraped them."
I saw some children look so sad when their friends was playing with someone else." Good
books that touch issues (being excluded, being blamed, caring for offer possibilities for
teachers and children to talk) Games and joking can help children to feel relax feelings and
to explore feelings in an accepting way. Class (not sharing materials, pushing on the P) offer
topics for discussion (see Figure 14-5).
ability to express emotions verbally gives children power to deal with them without resorting
inappropriate behaviour. Social referencing involves on another person's emotional reaction
to one's own appraisal of an uncertain situation"
(Berk, 2011). "Look! Paul is crying. Let's go over and see if we can comfort him”
"I can see that they are shouting about the red ball, but I can see them talking it out."
Making use of others' emotional cues can help infants to deal with stranger anxiety, toddlers
to calm themselves after saying good-bye, pre-schoolers to avoid overreacting to a fall, and
school-aged children to begin to recognize that people can feel more than one emotion at a
time. teacher who runs to the rescue after a minor spill can engender "learned helplessness"
and cause children to be overly dependent on others. Conversely, he teacher who fails to
respond to children when they express emotions may give children the message that theirs'
distress is to be ignored.
Curriculum Planning for Emotional Development

Setting Teachers set up their classrooms and yards to promote emotional growth.
Indoors, children's inner thoughts and feelings are best expressed through:
• The Arts. Clay or dough lets children vent feelings, because it can be pounded,
pinched, poked, slapped, and manipulated. Finger painting and painting on broad
surfaces with large brushes encourage a freedom of movement that permits children
to express themselves fully.
• Blocks/Manipulatives. Vary the materials regularly to help children adjust to change
and to allow them to exercise judgment about playing with different materials. A
variety of props—motor vehicles, animals, people, furniture—gives children the
opportunity to re-enact what they see of the world.
• Discovery/Science. Often, science need not be geared toward only cognitive and
language development.
The Teacher's Roles in Children's Anger Management

1. Create a safe :emotional climate. by having dear, firm. and, flexible boundaries.
2. Model responsible anger management . . . by acknowledging when you: are upset.
3. Help children develop self-regulatory skills by giving children age and skill-appropriate
responsibilities and encouraging problem-solving with support.
4. Encourage children to 'label feelings of anger . . . start with "mad" and expand to
include "upset, annoyed, irritated, furious, steamed," etc.
5. Encourage children to talk about anger-arousing interactions. by talking about
situations when they aren't happening. "l felt mad when. " can start a lively
conversation; cards with realistic scenarios can do the same, as can puppets.
6. Use appropriate books and stories about anger to help children understand and
manage anger . . . see Figure 4-6.
7. Communicate with parents Introduce the books or puppets let them borrow them
overnight tell them what you do in your program, and ask what they do.
Caring for pets brings out feelings of nurturing and protectiveness Make "feeling clocks"; the
blank clock pro a base on which children draw or paste picture of people showing various
emotional states
• Dramatic play, the home life materials give children the props they need to expressed
how they see their world child who is afraid of being left with sitter may be come the
parent leaving the child-doll at home and corner the child who is afraid of the doctor
sometimes be seen gleefully giving shots to all the stuffed animals . Mirrors,
telephones, and dress-up Clothes encourage themselves children as well to try as out
each their other. Emotional interests on themselves as well each other.
• Language/Library. Stories and books in which character and situations reflect a wide
range of emotions are readily available (see Figure 14-6). Children enjoy looking at
photographs of people and guessing what the person in the photo is feeling; record
and post responses nearby.
• Music/Movement. Music of all kinds encourages self-expression and permits an
endless variety of movement and feelings to be shown openly and freely (see Teach
Source Video). Children can be introduced to classical, ethnic, jazz, or rock music.
while dancing with scarves or streamers or marching with rhythm sticks, as well as singing
and dancing to children's recordings. Because musical knowledge is the earliest of human
intellectual competencies (see Chapter 12), music can be part of the curriculum for children
as young as toddlers. Pounding on drums and dancing both relieve tension in a socially
acceptable manner. More structured activities, such as showing children how to use musical
instruments, must be balanced by plenty of freedom for individual musical expression.
Outdoors, the environment itself encourages self-expression . in the sand or on a swing,
children seem to open up emotionally as they relax in the physical freedom the out-of-doors
fosters. Outdoor games are usually highly emotionally charged. "A Bear Hunt" (also known by
many other names) uses the teacher as lead, narrating movements such as going through a
gate, swishing in the grass, climbing trees, swimming across creeks, and so on. Running,
chasing, and the dramatic play of superheroes provide emotional release for children.
The outdoor area is an ideal place for large, noisy, and messy activities. Tracing body outlines
create life-size portraits of each child that reinforce self-concept and.
Books for Emotional Development
Anger: When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry (Bang); The Grouchy Ladybug (Carle);
My Name Is Not Dummy (Crary)
Fear: There's•a Nightmare in My Closet (Mayer); Storm in the Night (Stolz)

Self-Esteem: •The Growing Story (Krauss); Ruby (Glen); Things I Like (Browne); Amazing Grace
(Hoffman) Loss: The Maggie B (Keats); Amos and Boris (Steig)
Change: Chånges, Changes (Hutehihs)} Sam Is My Half-Brother (Boyd)
Friendship:'Two is Téam (Semelman); That's What Friends Are For (Kidd); Big Al (ClementS)
Secukity: One Step, Twb (Zolotow); The Bundle Book (Zolotow);• •Rie and Shine, Mariko:chan
(Tomiokaj;€•
Choice: Best EnemieS (Leverich); Did You Carry the Flag Today Chåhly? (Clåüdlll)
Death: Death and Dying(Stein); The,Dead Bird (Brown); Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs.
(dePaoli) '4 Divorce; Two Places •to Sleep (Schüchman)
Doctor/Dentist: Curious George Goes to the Hospital (Rey); Your Tuhn, Doctor (Robinson &
Perez); My Doctor (Harlow)
Moving: Mitchell Is Moving (Sharmat); Jamie (Zolotow); The Leaving Morning (Johnson)
New Baby/Adoption: Baby Sister for Frances (Hoban); I Want to Tell You about My Baby
(Banish); Peter's Chair (Keats); The Chosen Baby (Wasson)
Nightmares: Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak); In the Night Kitchen (Sendak); There's a
Nightmare in My Closet (Mayer)
Spencfing the night: Ira Sleeps Over (Waber)
Encourage Personal pride. Woodworking is an outdoor Pillows children to vent anger and
tension. . chat will not be hurt no matter how hard they are pounded there Even is
satisfaction a simple project in sawing such a as piece water of paint-wood pieces. roes an
avenue for self-expression as children use paintbrushes and buckets of water on trees,
cement, and Building giving Them all a fresh coat of paint.
Daily schedule Much of the schedule involves routine, transition and group time to involve
kind of activity to another. There is a sense of uncertainty and they are emotionally charged,
so child you find the wandering uncertainty a. behaviour is most likely to be unfocused. Here,
You find the wandering and chasing, even oppositional or withdrawn behaviour.
Teachers help children best by giving children ideas of to do ("Each of you can sponge a table
now," or “You can sit on my lap while your dad leaves today"). Specific suggestions for group
behaviour, including those generated by the class itself, inspire success (see Figure 14-7). In
addition, flexibility is the cornerstone of success.
By remaining flexible, especially to the children's needs, I have built a deep, personal
relationship with each of the children I care for. I find ways to' adapt to their schedules as
much as possible instead of [always] forcing them into a [rigid] routine of the centre.
(McCormick, 1993)
Skills Emotional development is a lifelong process that requires experience with one's
feelings. To help children learn to express and control their emotions, teachers consider each
child's emotional skills. Be goals teachers set for children determine which emotional skills
will be de focus: Maggie has difficulty with changes in the routine ; Caroline never cries, no
matter how she hurts; and Clyde screams when he is frustrated.
Problem solving is a skill with an emotional focus. This skill can be done directly or indirectly.
Both use a step-by-step process similar to interpersonal conflict resolution (see Chapter 7):
Direct Problem Solving: How to Improve a Boring Playground

1. Help children define the situation by turning it into a question. ("What can we do to
fix up our playground?")
2. Make a list of options or alternatives. ("Plant flowers, get more bikes, add more sand
toys.")
3. Ask the children to think of what might happen for each option. ("Flowers would look
pretty, but we Would have to water them.'')
4. Make a choice. ("N.Vhich one should we chosen")
5. Implement the plan. ("OK, today we will plant the flowers from the field trip to the
nursery
6. Check later to gee how the choice turned out.
7. ("Look how nice the yard is!" or" Darn, we forgot to water, and they died.")
Indirect Problem Solving: When Ning Hated School

1. Introduce the main character. “Once upon a time there was a girl named Ning
2. Tell about the problem. “One day Ning ran away from school because
3. Talk to a wise person." Ning•s auntie knew just about everything, so
4. Try out a new approach. “So Ning decided she would try
5. Evaluate the results: "She liked school better now
6. Summarize the lesson. “Now Ning felt better. She told her friend
Persona dolls" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010) encourage language involvement.
Each doll has his/her story that can reflect the composition of the class and can offer
experiences that extend the children's learning. All dolls are introduced with their own lives,
and a teacher introduces each one and tells its story. Children ask questions, which expands
the story. The teacher can tell a story that arises from the everyday interactions in class, "hot
topics" that parents are talking about or occur in the news, things the teacher decides are
important to think and talk about, or stories based on history.
Themes can be useful when developing curriculum for emotional growth. One school-age
program developed the themes of "Hurt and Healing," another did "Pitfalls with Pets." For
the first, the group brainstormed and came up with throwing water at targets, kicking stacks
of boxes, stomping on egg cartons, pounding anger out into clay, and throwing coloured water
at a painting. For the second, skits were developed to dramatize scared reactions; stories
were dictated, pictures drawn, games made up (see Figure 14-8).
Curriculum for Social Growth

Social development is the process through which children learn what behaviour is acceptable
and expected. A set of standards is imposed on the child at birth that reflects the values of
the family and the society in which the child lives. Social growth refers to what happens with
the child and others. Theorists from Freud and Piaget to Bandura and Gardner (see Chapters
4 and 12) acknowledge the relationship between social competence and learning. Indeed,
enhancing social intelligence builds a set of skills that may be among the most essential for
life success of many kinds.
Dealing with Changes In the Daily Schedule

Routines
❖ Respect children's feelings of anticipation.
❖ Have a chart of daily activities.
❖ Discuss upcoming field trips or. visitors ahead of time when. possible. When possible,
let the children take responsibility for known sequences.
❖ Set their own snack table.
❖ Get flowers for the table.
❖ Help clean a place for the next children.
Transitions:
❖ When unexpected changes occur, discuss them with individuals and the group.
❖ -Andy isn't here today. He has a sore throat, so he is staying home. Esther will be the
teacher in his group today."
❖ provide time for self-help without unnecessary hurry.
❖ put on their own name tag.
❖ Wash and dry their own hands.
❖ Dress themselves—jacket for outdoors, shoes after nap, and so on.
❖ Take care of their rest items—blanket and stuffed toy in a labelled pillowcase, books
back in a basket or bookshelf, and soon.
Group Times:
❖ Use children's faces as a focus.
❖ Practice facial expressions with mirrors.
❖ Call out feelings, having them show you on their faces.
❖ Sing "If You're Happy and You Know with a variety of feelings. Ask children what
situations have them feel each.
❖ Show photographs Of children's faces; ask the group to. tell you how that person .is
feeling, why, and so on.
❖ Try idea completions.
❖ feel glad when...' (also mad, bad, sad, safe, excited, scared, silly) • "I like school
when..." (also don't like, also my friend, mom, it) • El wish..." , • "The best thing I can
do..." Use situations to elicit feelings.
❖ Here's a picture of a family. What are they doing? How does each person felt
❖ "-I'm going to cover part Of the picture of the face to see if you Care •guess what
expression it's going to be
❖ -"These cards show Situations the teachers have seen happen. As I read them think:
'How do I Can I say? What can I do?'"
The Development of Social Competence

Social competence is acquired through countless experiences with others. Some children
become competent in the early years; even more need the years of childhood and
adolescence to achieve it. Still, the early years are a foundation for social growth for all (see
Figures 14-9 14-10).
Theme: Who I Am?

Art: Body Facial outlines expressions pictures—variations (a) provide handheld mirrors, (b)
give a blank face and let them draw in the features, (c) self-portraits: make them throughout
the year, using "people colours," (d) cut out faces in magazine for collage. Face painting.
Fingerprinting (hand and foot)
Blocks: People, furniture, structures people live in
Cooking: Share ethnic dishes (tortillas, pasta, things you like to cook at home)
Discovery/Science: Height/weight
Drawing around charts hands and feet and comparing sizes
Doing body outlines of a large group of children, each with a different colour, and Mapping—
charting where people live, charts of phone numbers, put out a globe Weather—make
connections to types of homes
Dramatic Play: A Lots variety of mirrors a variety dress-up play for taking on a variety of roles
and seeing how they feel
Language/Library: model Have children (b) loose-leaf write books binder about of their
themselves—variations: own books they can add (a) use to themselves, Is This You? (c)
(Krauss) "where as Live" as title, (d) families books on children and families with diverse
backgrounds (Corduroy [Freedman) lives in an apt.)
Where animals live feelings about where children live
Manipulatives: Puzzles with body parts, with people and clothing self-help skills with dressing
frames encourage children to build a structure that things could live in (e.g., using Lincoln
Logs).
Sand and Water Play: Bubble-blowing
Using your bodies to build—digging with hands and feet, encouraging sensory exploration
Use body parts to help you (e.g., using your foot on the shovel).
Swinging/Climbing: Both of these activities use body parts; teachers help the children
become aware of how they do physical activity.
Games: Rolling the barrel, rolling yourself Hide and Seek, Tag
Mother May?, Dramatic play games with family members
Guessing games: Make "Who am l?" snapshots of the backs of children's heads or their hands.
Use a shoe from each child, having them all tuck their feet under them.
Large Block-Building: Making house-like structures
Using Vehicles that need your body's force to move
Woodworking: Using body parts
Make a map board of school, neighbourhood, a city
Routines: Self-help: Awareness of what you can do by yourself by definition of "Who Am l?"
tasks; teachers use verbal and musical reinforcement
Transitions: Use physical characteristics of children for transitions—"Everyone who has
brown eyes/freckles/ blue jeans can go outside."
Group times: "Head and shoulders"

Snack time/bedtime: Mark places with names and pictures, such as beds or placemats
Try to coordinate the name tag, bed, or placemat with symbol on cubby.
Social Development
Social development begins at birth. Within the first of life, the infant smiles, coos, and plays
in to a human voice, face, or physical contact Chapter 4). Young children are d from birth by
a deliberate attempt on the f adults to guide them in ways that society ex peers attempt to
transmit behaviour patterns characteristic of their culture, religion, gender, al, and ethnic
backgrounds. Teachers assist by incorporating some family rituals and traditions the program.
into
children imitate what they see; they adapt social (ions to their personality. "Cooperation,
generosity! loyalty, and honesty are not inborn. eye must be .Ad on to the child by older
people, [whether) they $ parents, other adults, or older youngsters" (Kostelnik01,
2008).There are many cultural variations in social expectations . How people relate to each
other, what feelings to be expressed, how to deal with personal space, and who to touch,
and how to respond to personal events varies considerably.
socializing process—called socialization— Includes learning appropriate behaviour in a
number of different settings. Children learn very early to discriminate between the
expectations in different environments.
❖ At school, free exploration of play materials may be encouraged, but in a church pew
it is not.
❖ Grocery stores may be places to sit up high and watch, to walk and choose, to tear
around with a little cart, to grab and cry about things.
❖ Libraries and Grandma's home may Joke very different, but both are for being quiet
and looking at books.
Children's understanding of others is critical for their social growth. Very young children show
awareness of what other people feel—even infants pay special attention to emotional
expressions of adults. Toddlers can ascertain if someone is happy, sad, or angry, and can try
to comfort someone in distress. Three year Olds know that if someone gets what he wants,
he is happy, and if not, he is sad. Older pre-schoolers begin to understand that what they (or
others) believe may turn Out to be false. By kindergarten, many children understand that
others sometimes think and feel differently than they do.
In general, the socialization process in an early childhood setting revolves around a child's
relationships with people. During this time of their lives, children
Work Out a separate set of relationships with their teachers, those adults other than their
parents. They interact differently with adults than children, and learning to interact
successfully with other children is important.
Trough socialization, gender roles are learned. fie customary roles that boys and girls play are
transmitted, along with acceptable variations. Children come to understand how teachers,
mommies, daddies, grandparents, males, and females are expected to act. Early childhood
professionals need to be aware of the difference between a child's gender identity
development and a child's sex role development. Various cultures may have earing notions
about sex role development.
Children also learn social attitudes at an early age. They learn to enjoy being with people and
participating in social activities. At the same time, young children can also develop attitudes
of bias, and it is in these early years that prejudicial behaviour often begins. How the teachers
respond to negative comments, unfair acts, exclusivity based on race, gender, or ability is
crucial in combating these negative attitudes. Favourable attitudes toward people and a
strong desire to be part of the social world interacting with others are established in the early
years.
Another important facet of socialization involves
the development of a sense of community. A program's emotional climate and teacher's

behaviour contribute not only to children's sense of personal safety and belonging but also to
the value of relationships that are sustained by communication. Teachers who strive for
community awareness and bonding are adhering to an anti-bias philosophy (see Chapter 9)
that promotes empathic interaction with people from diverse backgrounds and standing up
for self and others in the face of bias.
All areas of children's development play a part in learning social skills:
❖ All areas of children's development play a part in learning social skills:

❖ Having the confidence to try joining a group calls on emotional skills.
❖ Remembering children's names or how a game works is a cognitive task.
❖ "Using your words" to express an idea or feeling requires language.
❖ Having the ability to play, chase, or walk in high heels for a dress-up game requires
certain physical dexterity.
There are many variations that arise in social situations. For instance, children can sustain
complex play without much language, and games can be adapted to include children with a
variety of physical skills.
Understanding the principle of interrelated development however teachers appreciate the
process of and recognize opportunities to guide their social development
In the early years children mature socially in discerned early years' (see Figure 14-9). From
birth to age 3 children interest's in other begins with a mutual gazing and social smiles in the
early months(birth trough 8 months) continues with an exploration of others as well
behaviour around strangers in the crawler and walker stage (8to 18 months) and develops
into an enjoyment of peers and adults along with awareness of their right and feelings as a
toddler and 2 years old (18 months to 3 years )
In month preschool learn to control their aggressive repulses, think about others beside
them and resist doing what they should not. This learn translates into four basic expectations.
They
1. Show interest in others.
2. Learn right from wrong.
3. Learn to get along with others.
4. Learn a role for themselves that takes into consideration their unique self-gender,
race, ethnicity, and abilities.
Children of the primary years (5 to 8 years) show an increased interest in peers and social
competence, group rules become important. "the development of a social conscience and of
fairness rounds out the primary grade developmental milestones.
Social Competence
Social competence involves the skills and personal knowledge children develop to deal with
the challenges and opportunities they face in life with others. This includes relationships with
all other people, including family, teachers, caregivers, peers, and the community at large.
Through their social interactions, children learn a sense of personal identity, adopt family and
cultural values, acquire interpersonal skills, and learn how to “live in the world" (see Figure
14-10).
Social Development Timeline

Infant—Toddler
Response to Other's Distress Reacts emotionally by experiencing what the other seems to
feel.
Peer Interaction
• first encounters mutual inspection

• first social contacts
• (18 months) Growth in sensitivity to peer play
• (2 years) Able to direct social acts to two children at once
• (beginning of social interaction)
Social Roles
• (10-20 days) Imitation of adults

• (3 month') Gurgles in response to others
• (6 months) Social games based on imitation
• (18 months) Differentiation between reality and pretend play
• (2 years) Makes doll do something as if it were alive
Pre-schooler
Begins to make adjustments that reflect the realization that the other person is different and
separate from self.
• Adjustment in behaviour to fit age and behaviour of other

• (More than 3 years) Friendship as momentary
• (3—5 years) Beginning friendship as constant
• (3 years) Makes a several roles or activities
• (4—5 years) Acts out a social role in dramatic play and integrates that role with others
(mom and baby)
Primary Child
Takes other's personality into account and shows concern for other's general condition
• Friend as someone who will do what you want

• Beginning of friend as one who embodies admirable, constant characteristics
• (6 years)integrates one Floe with two complimentary roles doctor, nurse, and sick
person
• (8 years) Growing understanding that roles can influence behaviour (doctor whose
daughter is a patient)
There are several components to social competence.
• Emotional regulation. The ability to regulate emotions (see earlier in this chapter).
• Social knowledge and understanding. Knowledge of enough language and norms to
interact successfully; understanding the reactions of others and their feelings
(empathy).
• Social skills, Social approach patterns, attention to.
Others, exchange of information, handling aggression.

Social dispositions. Habits or characteristic ways of responding to experiences.
Why is social competence important? Such children are happier than their less competent
peers. Children's Social relations have been linked to academic achievement.
Lack of social competence
is linked to rejection by peers, poor self-esteem, and poor academic performance (Kostelnik
et al., 2008). It is now widely accepted that young children who do not frequently interact
with peers are at risk for a host of later socio emotional difficulties.
Children become socially competent in several predictable ways.
• First, the brain is wired to look for patterns. When an infant smiles and is met with a
reciprocal smile, a pattern of responsiveness and attachment begins. The pre-
schooler who grabs for toys and usually gets to keep them when he is at home is
surprised (and unhappy) when the pattern is broken at the child care centre and the
toy is returned to the one who was using it. As a result experiences, children form
ideas about how the social world works. They are active observe and experiment and
learn learners first hand what happens when they try something. on-the-spot lessons
greatly help learn socially.
• Next children have multiple ways each of learning. Because of teachers often it is
best to try a variety of approaches When teaching social skills. Talking helps some
when linguistic others learn better by seeing patterns (ling mathematical), and many
learn by modelling. Rehearsing how to do or say the words helps the kinaesthetic
learner
• Finally, learn of social repertoires through play. Dramatizations, role-playing, and
dramatic play provide opportunities to act out many and help children deal with some
of the placed on them. in play, the child experiments with options: finding out what
it feels like to be the boss, to be the baby, to behave in ways that might otherwise be
unacceptable.
See how all three ways are used in this sequence: Sarda wants to play in the block corner, but
stands. hesitantly as four boys shout and vroom the cars around. "Do you want to play here?"
inquires the observant teacher. When she nods, the teacher helps her move in and the two
begin building [acquire approach through modelling]. Soon, the boys notice and come to see
a garage being built, so they drive their cars over [a pattern of play they recognize]. The
teacher slowly steps aside, and the game continues [learn through play].
Common Social Challenges

Children of each age in early childhood experience a range Of social difficulties (see Chapter
7). For instance, toddlers develop many forms of testing behaviour, including saying "No" to
adult rules and other restraints. Grabbing, biting, and hitting are common forms of aggression
and self expression . Some of this occurs in pre-schoolers, as well as other forms of self-
determination. There are problems children encounter when responding to emotions, both
theirs and those of others. Peer status and friendship loom large in primary school, when
loneliness and exclusion, teasing and bullying all occur (Gordon & Browne, 1996; Browne &
Gordon, 2009).
Teasing and bullying can become disruptive in older groups. Teachers need to be clear about
what bullying is, and how to respond to it early. "Bullying is repeated, Systematic efforts to
inflict harm on someone who is unable or unlikely to defend himself or herself" (Berger,
2009). Children who are exposed repeatedly and over time to negative actions (words,
physical contact, making faces, gesturing or intentional exclusions from a group) on the part
of one or more others can develop low self-esteem and may become withdrawn or be
rejected by their peers. Not every rejected child becomes a bully victim, and not every child
who excludes or teases another becomes a bully. But the antisocial behaviour results in
difficulties for both sides: "Over time, the social costs to both bullies and victims include
impaired social understanding and problems with human relationships in adulthood" (Berger,
2009).
Although bullying is more serious and noticeable late in childhood and adolescence, its roots
are in early childhood. Teachers must take notice and do a better job of dealing with the
behaviours. Preschool and school-age programs can also implement conflict resolution
programs that teach children how to express themselves and listen to others in socially
intense situations. Systematic work with children to teach them these social competence skills
helps them deal with what might be called the "garden variety" conflicts— issues of property,
territory, and power such as teasing, put-downs, hitting, not sharing, and who is the boss (see
Figure 14-11).
Talk it out Conflict Resolution

1. stoop cool off
2. talk and listen
3. think of ways to solbe problems
4. choose the idea you both like
Peer Relationships
For young child social development means the14' the young away from the egocentric
position of parents) as central points toward a more sociocentric viewpoints that involves
others both adults and especially children. During the early years, the child to socialize outside
the family; social contacts the home reinforce the enjoyment of social activities and
interactions, prepare the that child is, for associations future group with activity.
Peer interaction - that is associations with Friends of the same age group, become important
to the child infancy and early toddlerhood are past. Trough peer interactions, children can
identify with models who just like themselves and can learn from each other's befriends
provide models for imitation, for comparison and for confirmations of themselves, and they
are source of support. Playing with other children begins with solitary and parallel play at
around age 2, in which two or more children are in the same area with each other but do not
initiate social interaction. By the ages of 3 and 4, more interaction takes place. %ere are
conversations and conflicts as well as cooperation in playing together. There are children's
friendships. In the early years, friend-ship starts at an undifferentiated level, in which children
are egocentric and a friend is more of the moment. Gives way to a unilateral level; a good
friend does what the did wants the friend to do. Toward the end of early childhood , friendship
becomes more reciprocal, involving some give-and-take in a kind of two-way cooperation.
Listen to these children trying out their friendship.
Chris: I'll be the teacher, you be the kid.
Suzanne; NO! I want to be the teacher, too.
Chris: No! No! You can't be the teacher, too, cause then there'd be no kids.
Suzanne: OK. Next time, I get to be the teacher.

Chris; Maybe! OK, everybody go wash your hands for snack time. Suzanne, you can pass out
your very nutritious snack to everybody.
Suzanne: super fancy, I'm the boss of snack.
A peer group is important for a number of reasons. Social development is enhanced because
a child learns to conform to established social standards outside of his home setting. nie
expectations of the larger society are reinforced. To become autonomous, the child must also
learn to achieve independence from the family, especially Parents. Young children must also
come to understand themselves as part of society. Self-concept is enlarged by a group Of
peers as they see how others respond to them and treat them.
Making and keeping friends are essential to children's positive social development, so
important that children without friends by the primary years are considered at risk for overall
school success. Developing friendships is more than teaching general interpersonal skills and
is especially important for children with special needs. Facilitating friendship development in
inclusive classrooms requires teacher awareness and interaction as well as careful

environmental and schedule planning.
Social Skills
Social skills are strategies children learn that enable them to behave appropriately in many
environments. They help children learn to initiate or manage social interaction in a variety of
settings and with a number of people. Social cognition is the application of thinking to
personal and social behaviour; it is giving meaning to social experience. For example, Nadia
wants to play with Paul, a very popular 4 year old. She remembers Paul's interest in the rope
swing and challenges him to swing higher than she did. He responds enthusiastically and the
friendship begins.
Social cognition requires children to interpret events and make decisions, to consider the
impact of their behaviour on others, and to consider the cause as well as the consequence of
an action. Cognitive •skills are necessary when we ask children to seek alternative solutions
to social problems: "How else could you ask him for a turn, Pete?" these are all social cognition
skills, and they serve as the basis for the acquisition of other skills.
Social Intelligence
Building on Gardner's multiple intelligences theory (see Chapters 4 and 12), Daniel Goleman
outlined five dimensions of emotional intelligence (see previous section and the Special Topic
at the end of this chapter). The % element of emotional intelligence is social skills. Teachers
who can help children handle their emotions (self-regulation) and learn to "read" other
people's feelings by their body language or tone of voice (empathy) can then lead children to
gain social skills. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, children who bully can be taught better
social skills, and the early childhood setting is just the place to do so, Paley's classic works
(1992) describe in detail the social climate of classrooms.'
"Are you my friend?" the little ones ask in nursery school, not knowing. The responses are
also questions. If yes, then what? And if I push you away, how does that feel?
By kindergarten, however, a structure begins to be revealed • certain children will have the
right to limit the social experiences of their classmates. • • Long after hitting and name-calling
have been outlawed by the teachers, a more damaging phenomenon is allowed to take root,
spreading like a weed from grade to grade.
With more social intelligence than most, Paley as kindergarten teacher decided to post a sign
outside her door one year. "You can't say you can't play" turns the class upside down and
requires both adults and children to learn new ways to interact.
Social skills can be viewed in different ways. The Four How’s is one set of categories for such
a complex array of skills:
1. How to approach. Getting and being included.
2. How to interact. Sharing, cooperating.
3. How to deal with difference. Including others, helping, bullying, and teasing.
4. How to manage conflict. Handling aggression, problem solving.
Another is to realize that there is a skill set learned ill every kind of interaction.
Skills Learned with Adults
• In their relationship with adults, children learn:

• They can stay at school without parents.
• They can enjoy adults other than parents and respond to new adults.
• Adults help in times of trouble or need.
• Adults help them learn social protocol.
• Adults keep children from being hurt and from hurting others.
• Adults help children learn about cultural differences and similarities, disabilities,
gender identity, and language diversity.
• Adults resist bias and stereotyping and teach children to actively do the same.
• Adults do not always take a side or solve the problem.
• Adults work with them to solve problems. Adults believe that every child has a right
to a satisfying social experience in early childhood settings.
Skills Learned with Peers
• In their relationship with other children, children learn:

• There are different approaches to others; some work, some do not.
• Interactive skills and how to sustain the relationship. How to solve conflicts in ways
other than retreat or force.
• How to share materials, equipment, other children, friends, teachers, and ideas.
• How to achieve mutually satisfying play. Self-defence and how to assert their rights
in socially acceptable ways.
• How to take turns and how to communicate desires.
• How to negotiate.
• How to be helpful to peers with task, information, and by modelling behaviour.
• How to anticipate and avoid problems.
• Realistic expectations of how other children behave and respond toward them.
• Ways to deal with socially awkward situations and with socially difficult with children.
• How to make, be, share, and lose a friend
Skills Learned in a group
• In a groups children learn:

• How to take part as a member and not an individual.
• That there are activities that promote group and associations.
• Identify as a member of various groups.
• To follow a daily schedule and patterns.
• To adapt to school routines.
• School rules and expectation.
• Interaction and participatory skills; how to enter and exit from play.
• To respect the rights of feelings, and property of others.
Skills learned as individual
• To take for responsibility fro self help, self care.

• To initiate their activities and to make choices.
• To work alone, close to other children.
• To notice unfair and injustice and learn how to handle them.
• To negotiate
• To cope with rejections, hurt feelings, disappointments.
• To communicate in verbal and nonverbal ways, and when to use communication skills.
• To test limit other people set.
• Their own personal style of peer interaction; degree, intensity, frequency, quality.
• To express strong feelings to socially acceptable ways.
• To manage self freedom.
Specific skills within these four areas include the social and moral aspect of
nurturance, kindness, and sharing. As children get older, these skills include
telling the truth, taking turns, keeping promise, respecting other's rights,
having tolerance, and following rules.
Another social skill that has taken hold is that of social action. In an anti bias
program(see chapter 9), children can learn how to take social action to make
unfair things fair. For instance, pre-schoolers discover that their adhesive strips
are labelled "flesh-coloured" but match the skin of only a few children; they
take photos and send them to the company( Derman-Spark & Olsen Edwards,
2010). Promoting activism may not always bring successful results, but the
activity and the model are powerful learning experiences.
“Mirror Neurons” at work
“Mirror Neurons” A teachers moment by moment actions and interactions with

children are the most powerful determinant of learning outcomes and development. Curriculum is
very important but, what the teacher does is paramount( Cappele and Bredekamp, 2009).
Developmentally appropriate practices are now supported by neuroscience. If you stick out your
tongue to a baby, he does the same. The same portions of the human brain activate when a person
perform the action. Monkey see, monkey do. And children do, too.
It appears that certain brain region contain “mirror neurons”. These are neurological networks set
up “ so that child’s neurological synapses” mirror” not only the teachers action and reactions... {but
also} these same mirror neurons affects the mood of the individual observing the instructor
(Rushton et al., 2009). This implies that it is not just what the teacher presents that is important, but
how and who does the presenting. “The irreducible core of the environment during early
development is people”(Thompson, 2001). The greatest dangers to the developing brain in the early
years are chronic stressors, including unavailable, depressed, or otherwise coercive or inconsistent
adults.
The implications of the discovery or mirror neurons is staggering: Might the mirror neurons affect
the mood of the child watching the teacher? "At a subliminal level, children observe the teachers
expressions and dispositions and internalized how the teacher is feeling. Neuroscientist believe that
our ability to emphasized with another human being is due, in part, to the activation of the mirror
neuron networks being activated by what we observes (Ruston et al., 2010).
Children’s behaviour and their mirror neurons reflect their external world. Research suggest that a
positive enthusiastic teacher send signals to a child's mirror neurons, which, in turn, can impact how
they receive the learning objectives being delivered. How we present not only by ourselves, but the
phenomenal journey of learning, is critical to the child's emotional development (Ruston, 2011).
Questions:
1. What imitative behaviours might you see in young children that indicate mirror neurons are
firing?
2. If the research recommends that curriculum be personally meaningful, what kind of activities
would likely be positively meaningful to toddlers? Prekindergarten’s?
3. Knowing that you influence children's developing mirror neuron networks, how should you
behave with them.
CURRICULUM APPROACHES FOR SOCIAL GROWTH

A major role for the early childhood teachers is to see that children have enjoyable social contacts
and to help motivate children towards a desire to be with others. The early childhood setting affords
children numerous learning opportunities for social development. In the role of social organizer, the
teacher creates a physical and interpersonal environment that promotes the development of
children’s social skill.
CONSIDERATIONS
Early childhood teachers consider the physical environment, daily schedule, and relational
interactions when planning a social curriculum.
PLANNING AND ARRANGING A SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Planning the social environment involves placements of furniture in ways that allow children to play
alone or with someone, as well as materials and toys available shelves for choosing. The placement
of two telephones, three wagons, and eight firefighter hats fosters child interactions. Children often
act together in an spontaneous way; then get organized toward a planned end when they decide to
build a single tower together. The teacher must also allow enough time in the daily time schedule for
the children to get thoroughly involved in playing with one another.
Help Children Develop Trust

Trusting in themselves, their peers, and their teachers is part of learning about social
relationships. Teachers enhance children's social knowledge as they gradually improve their
sense of trust. General recommendations are
1. Help children recognize their needs. Notice children who need to clarify their wishes; ask
uninvolved children with whom they would like to play; help arguing children say how they
feel and what they want.
2. Increase children's awareness of their social goals and the goals of others. Teachers can aid
children by helping them to recognize their choices, they can also mediate so that others can
express themselves.
3. Help Children Develop effective social skills. Provide a model for listening, for choosing
another place to play, or for going along with another's ideas; help children find ways to
stand their ground and also accommodate and learn and used conflict resolution,
cooperation, coping, and helping skills.
4. Teach children to recognize other's emotions and intentions. Children become flooded with
their own strong feelings and are not likely to notice someone else's emotions in the heat of
the moment; teachers can help children another's face or hear a tone of voice, thus
beginning to" read" another person.
5. Reflect with children on how their behaviours affects others by pointing out what is
predictable in their interactions .Young children do not always "connect the doors" between
their behaviour other's reaction. When a teacher makes a statement without disapproval,
the can then understand the effects of her or his behaviour on others; "wow! When you use
that loud voice, I see the kids looking scared, and then they tell you not to play here".
6. Highlight children success by helping them to monitor their behaviour. It can help children
to see their successful social encounters as well as the strategies that did not work. When
you ask them if you could play, they said, 'Noʼ but then you went and get shovels for
everyone and that worked.
7. Avoid telling children who their "friends" are. Early childhood teachers encourage children
to learn about friendship; however “legislating friendship” often backfires. Telling children
“we're all friends here” or “friends share things to everyone” denies the distinction between
positive, friendly experience and friendship. “Classmates and friends are not the same
word”.
8. Develop a set of strategies to help the socially awkward and troubled in your class.
Although each child is unique, there are certain situations that arise time and again in an
early childhood classroom. Children who are socially inept often do not use nonverbal
language effectively and are “out of sync” because they miss the signs.
9. Do not stay uninvolved or ignored teasing and bullying. A lack of response can signal all
children that it is okay to engage in these behaviours and acceptable to fall victim to it. Talk
about it; read book such as Rosie's story (Gogoll) or Oliver Button is a sissy (de Paola) make
an experience chart("I feel (un) welcome when...); and help the class with fair rules. In non-
competitive games, children learn to help each other rather than trying to win or gain power
over others. Finally, foster friendship between girls and boys and actively counter gender
bias.
10. Work to provide a caring community in your class. Brain research ( see brain box) confirms
their points and an anti bias (see chapter 9) supports the development of social action as an
extension of making right the classroom and beyond.
11. Invite parents and families into the process of children's socialization. Both teachers and
families share in the responsibility of helping children develop social skills; neither one can
do it alone.
ARRANGING A SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Do's
Respect individual timetable and feelings.
Establish authority and credibility.
Express expectations simply and directly.
Redefine children’s character in positive terms.
Encourage impulsive control.
Appeal to children’s good sense.
Invoke ground rules.
Mixed it up: arrange things to get one child next to another.
Move it: people, toys, you
Don'ts
Make implied comparisons.
Issue empty threats.
Hover.
Make-teacher child interaction to be all about misbehaviour.
Motivate children by indirect disapproval.
Lose your sense of humour.
Allow a rigid curriculum to narrow possibilities for social interaction.
CURRICULUM FOR SOCIAL SKILL ENVIRONMENT

ACTIVITIES
Time Skill Activities

Week 1 Developing a positive self 1. Do thumb printing
image art.
2. Make foot and
handprints.
3. Compares children
baby pictures with
current photos.
4. Play with mirrors;

make faces,
emotional
expressions.
5. Dress felt dolls in
clothing.
6. Sing name songs:
"Mary wore her red
dress".
7. Make a list: what i
like to do best, is
post in classroom.
8. Do a self portrait in
any art medium.
9. Make a silhouette
picture of each child.
Week 2 Becoming a member of a 1. Take attendance
group together: who is
missing?.
2. Play picture lotto
with photographs of
children.
3. Play "farmer in the
dell".
4. Share a favourite toy
from home with
older children.
5. Tape record
children's voices,
guess who they are.
6. Have a friendly feast,
each child brings a
favourite food from
home to share.
Week 3 Forming a friendship with a 1. Provide one puzzle
group (toy, game, book) for
every two children.
2. Take a buddy walk,
return and tell a
story together of
what you saw.
3. Play telephone talk.
Pretend to invite
your friend over to
play.
4. Play copy cat,
imitate your friends
laugh, walk, cry,

words.
5. Practice throwing
and catching balls
with one another.
6. Form letter together
with two children's
bodies: A, T, C, K etc.
7. Play tug of war with
your friend.
8. Build a house of
blocks together.
9. Make mirror image
movements with
your friend.
Week 4 Working together as a 1. Play with a
group parachute ; keep the
ball bounding.
2. Make snacks for the
rest of the class.
3. Plan and plant a
garden.
4. Make a mural
together to decorate
the hallways.
5. Play follow the
leader.
6. Sing a round “row
row row row your
boat”.
Week 5 Learning a group identity 1. Make a map of the
town and have
children place their
house on it.
2. Take a field trip
together.
3. Print a news paper
with articles by and
about each child.
4. Select and perform a
favourite story for
the rest of the class.
5. Take a group
snapshot.
6. Make a family tree
of photos of children
in group.
7. Learn a group folk

dance.
8. Make mural of
handprints joined in
a circle.
Facilitate children's Interaction and Interpret their behaviour.

To help young children understand each other and to pave the way for
continued cooperation, the teacher reports and reflects on what is happening along with
specific curriculum planning. Im the classroom setting, during an active, free play, period the
teacher might:
REFLECT THE ACTION SAY

Show approval and reinforce positive I like the way you carefully stepped over
social behaviour. their block building, Danneta.
Support a child in asserting her rights. Crystal is hanging on to the doll because
she isn't finished playing yet, Wilbur.
Supports a child desire to be I know you want to help, Keyetta, but
independent. Sammy is trying to put his coat on by
himself.
Acknowledge and help children establish Omar, would like to play, too. That’s why
contact with others he brought you another bucket of water.
Is there a place he can help?.
Reflect back to a child the depth of his I know George made you very angry when
feeling ls and what those feelings might he took your sponge, but I can’t let you
take. throw water at him. What can you tell
him? What words cam you use to say you
didn’t like what he did?.
Adult responses to children's play are particularly critical in supporting positive social
development. When children make judgements in error, coming to false conclusions about
children on the basis of race, gender, native language, or ability, the teacher must intervene
because silence signals tacit approval. This is perhaps the most dynamic and challenging
part of teachers job, the heart of the profession.
Curriculum Planning for Social Development

Social curriculum happens everywhere in am early childhood program. Teaching social
behaviour usually occurs in response to spontaneous situations. And the acquisition of social
skills can be enhance in more formalize ways through planned curriculum activities (see
figure 14-13).
Setting.
The way the environment is arrange has profound effect on social interaction among
children. Most indoor activities are planned and set up to encourage participation by more
than one child at a time. Arrange the space into learning centres with clear physical
boundaries and ways to get around (see chapter 9). Remember, the environment is one of
the teachers.
The arts.
At the art table, children share collage materials and paste that have been place in the
centre of the table. When easels are place side by side, conversation occurs spontaneously
among children. A small table, placed between the easels, on which tray of paint cups is
placed, also encourage children's interaction. If there is only one of each colour, the children
have to negotiate with one another for the color they want to use.
Blocks/Manipulatives.
A large space for block cabinets gives children a visual cue that there is plenty of room for
more than one child. Puzzle tables set with free or four puzzles also tell children that social
interaction is expected. Many times, children talk, play, and plan with one another as they
share a large bin full of Legos or plastic building towers. A floor puzzle always requires a
group: some to put the picture together, others to watch and to make suggestions. As
children build with blocks next to one another, they soon share comments about their work,
many times this sharing leads to a mutual efforts on a single building.
Discovery/Science.
Many science projects can be arrange to involve more than one child. A display of magnets
with a tray of assorted objects can become the focus of several children as they decide
which objects will be attracted to the magnets. Cooking together, weighing and measuring
one another, and caring for classroom pets can be times when teachers reinforce social
skills.
Dramatic Play.
This area more than any other seems to draw children into contact with another. Provide an
assortment of family life accessories dress up clothes, kitchen equipment and utensils. A
shoe needs to be tied or a dress zipped. Someone must come eat the delicious meal just
cook or put the baby to bed. A medical theme in this classroom area also enhance children's
social skills. They learn to take each other’s temperature, listen to heartbeats, and plan
operations, all of which require more than one person. Socio dramatic play can provide
curriculum integration in the primary grades as well.
Language/Library.
Children enjoy reading books and stories to one another, whether or not they know the
words. Favourite books are often shared by two children who enjoy turning the page and
talking over the story together. Lotto games encourage children to become aware of one
another to look at each person’s card in order to identify who has the picture to match.
Name songs and games, especially early in the year, help children learn to call each other by
name.
Music movement.
Build in regular times for music and movement activities. The entire group can participate in
familiar songs: a sense of community is built by, everyone’s participation . Activities during
first three choice times usually involve smaller numbers, in which group members can
challenge one another to new ways to dance with scarves or use the tumbling mat.
Outdoors, children need a space to run, a place to yell, a place where adults are not
hovering and directing each activity. The pretend play pf boys, in particular is usually richer
than inside, and many of the rough and tumble activities prohibited in indoors are safe. It
may be more difficult to observe children, and directions are often harder to give distance.
The outdoor environment can be structured in ways to support group play.
Painting or Drawing. Painting on murals or drawing chalk designs on the cement are art
activities that promote social interaction.
Planning and Planting a garden. Planning and Planting a garden is long range project
involves many children. Decisions must be made by the group about what to plant, where to
locate the garden, how to prepared the soil, and what to share the responsibilities of caring
for the garden will be.
Gross motor activities. Most gross motor activities stimulate group interactions. Seesaw’s,
jump ropes, and hide and seek requires at least two people to Participate. A frame boards
and boxes, as well as movable equipment need a cooperative effort of several children to be
arrange. Sand play, when accompanied by water, shovels and other accessories, draws a
number of children to create rivers, dams, and floods. Ball games and relay races also
encourage social relationships with an opportunity and support and peer interaction. For
instance the routine of nap preparation can be structured with a buddy system so that older
children
Daily Schedule
Routines and transitions are often social experiences because they provide children with an
opportunity for support and peer interaction. For instance the routine of nap preparation
can be made fun and successful if children can wear a necklace to depict the job or area.
As directed learning experience, small group times afford an opportunity to focus on social
skills in more structured way. Small groups provide a setting for children and teachers to
participate in more relaxed, uninterrupted dialogue. Group time discussions, such as circle
time in preschool and class meeting for school age children. Too many children crowding the
water table, a child's fear of fire drills or noise level on a rainy day are subjects children talk
about in small groups. The most relevant situations are ones that occur naturally in the
course of program. Another curriculum idea is to make situation cards of these and other
common incidents. For instance, teachers can create illustrated cards that pose situations
such as:
• You tell your friends to stop it when they take part of the toy you’re using, but they
do it again.
• You open your lunch and your mom or dad packed your favourite foods.
• You came down the slides and your teacher calls “Hooray for you”.
• You promise your friend that you will play with him at recess but then someone else
you like ask you to play with her.
Teachers then guide a discussion around the questions How do you feel? What can you say?
And what can you do? This activity can be simplified or elaborated depending on the
individuals or group involved.
Focus on skills
Social development for the preschool child includes gaining an awareness of the large
community in which the child lives. The early childhood curriculum contain elements of
what is often in the later grades called "social studies". Community members such as police
officers, mail couriers, restaurants workers, and dental staff may be available to visit a
program. Be sure to includes skills that are important to each child's culture and family.
Introducing children to a diverse range of creative adults men and women from a variety
cultural backgrounds helps children explore the world outside of their own experience.
Curriculum of cooperation.
COOPERATION.
➢ Language ➢ Science
Play and perform a favourite story. Care for classroom pets.
Choose a story at the listening post together. Have a group cooking projects.
Learn I love you in sign language. Plan and plant a garden.
Copy someone's motion, dance, black
patterns.
Put on a puppet show.
Develop what can I share chart.
Discuss how new toys, equipment will ne
shared so everyone gets a turn.
➢ Music. ➢ Environment.
Sing together each day. Schedule clean-up daily.
Have a rhythm band Have two children share two cubbies.
Bring snacks from home to share.
Dance in groups of two or three.
Set tables for two or more children.
Dance with a parachute. Use large bins to store some materials:
children will need to share contents.
➢ Games. ➢ Arts.
Play Simon says. Trace each other’s bodies on paper.
Play board games. Share paste and collage materials.
Winnie the pooh and candy land.
Shake paints.
Play lotto.
Make a mural.
Play bingo.
Make a litter bags.
Create a wall hanging : fabric, crayons and
sheets : each child draws part.
Create a class quilt: each child sews a
square: teacher puts it together.
Outdoors Social Studies
Put someone on a swing. Make a group gift for a hospital, rest home.
Pull a friend in wagon. Create an art display for thw local library.
Make bird feeders. Make cookies to sell for the school fair.
Set up a bowling alley with a bowling pin Run errands for teachers, each other.
setters. Develop dramatic play themes of, shoe
Make an obstacle course. stores, hospitals, doctors, and ecology.
Use seesaws. Collect and sort recycling materials.
Play group jump rope. Take a field trip to the town for recycling.
Play follow the leader. Write a protest letter about an inferior
product.
Cooperating
Is one primary social skills in which young children need plenty of practice. Toddlers and 2
years old can begin to see the benefits of cooperation as they become more aware of other
feelings and wishes, and as teachers help all children get what they want through taking
turns, driving materials, and looking for another item when it is in demand. Three to 5 year
olds become more cooperative as they learn more self help skills. (motor development) and
can express themselves (language development) as well as remembering guidelines and
understand reasons for prosocial behaviour (cognitive development). School age develop an
emotional sense of psychosocial competence.
Being included
Is often a challenge. Young children get involve in a variety of interpersonal situations that
are beyond their capacities to handle with grace. Who deliberately leave another out all
may end up becoming rejected by their peers. They’re socially awkward and troubled
children need special help to learn strategies for being included that all children have to
learn.
Developing a conflict resolution curriculum helps all children learn the communication and
coping skills necessary for being included. Children who learn good observation and body
language skills can participate in situations that require prosocial behaviour. When
elementary children were taught impulse, bow to het what they wanted without
aggression., and how to recognize other's feelings along with teacher training and family
management skills, the children were in better mental health and higher educational and
economic environment than a control group 15 years later (Hawkins et al., 2008).
Helping others.
Is an area of social development that is sometimes not emphasized in an individualistic
society. Developmentally appropriate programs emphasize cooperation and find that
children spontaneously offer help and sympathy to those in need. Snack time is a natural
setting for practicing helping others in both words. (ease pass the fruits; No gracias) and
deeds ( handing someone or pitching the sponge). Remember to sit face to face, rather than
hover behind. Teachers who stand behind often fall into the trap of withholding food while
eliciting rote words, rather than genuine or spontaneous positive social interaction. Full day
program can encourage children to hell each prepare and put away nap items. Curriculum
can be develop from the classroom(what can we do when someone’s sad to say goodbye to
mom) and the larger world (some children notice a lot of trash in the park next door) to
enhance children helping skills. .
➢ TEACHING WITH INTENTION:

Sharing involves using or enjoying something in common with others. Although sharing may
seem simple for adults, it is not a skill that is learned overnight, nor is it easy to orchestra in
young children. When the dominant culture is one of the individual competition, acquisition
and ownership children get particular messages that can make teaching sharing difficult.
What does sharing mean to you? To a young children:

Giving up one’s possession more than taking turns
Holding onto a powerful position more than getting more power and fun;
Losing what you have rather than dividing everything equally and getting more.
Defining who I am rather than being a “me” who can give.
Thus sharing makes more sense over time with lots of guided experiences. As an adults you
know the advantages of sharing, but young children still live on the left side of the phrase.
How can adults help?
▪ Understand that it is normal not to want to share and to have trouble doing so.
▪ Explain in simple terms what you want the child to do.
▪ Make sure children get back what they shared so that taking turns really works.
▪ Be an example of sharing, because Do as I do is more powerful that do it because I
told you.
▪ Giving children experience of there being enough.
▪ Let the children experience ownership, too, and the goo md feeling that an act of
generosity brings.
Think about this:

1) If grabbing what they want make sense to toddlers and 2 year olds, how you might
show them that sharing a toys or space isn't mean giving up forever?
2) Because many of pre-schoolers have had some experience getting it back, what
might be the reasons for still not wanting to share?
3) School age children know better and still find ways to keep hold of items or
privileges. What a teacher to do about closed games or no room here?
Themes.
A popular theme that lends itself to social group is that of friendship (see figure 14-15).other
themes can be generated from the children.
Make it fair for Not enough raisins in the cereal, complained
a kindergartner, sparkling a letter writing
campaign.
The Girl no one wanted to play with. Pre-schoolers rejected one another, so they
wrote, made costumes for, and performed a
play.
Saving the world Third graders put on a sale to buy rainforest
acreage.
➢ CURRICULUM FOR CREATIVE GROWTH

It’s OK to try something you don’t know.
It’s OK to make mistakes.
It’s OK to take your time.
It’s OK to find your own pace.
It’s OK to bungle – so next time you are free to succeed.
It’s OK to risk looking foolish
It’s OK to be original and different
It’s OK to wait until you are ready
It’s OK to experiment (safely)
It’s OK to questions “should”
It is special to be you. You’re unique.
It is necessary to make a mess (which you need to be willing to clean up)
Permissions by Christina Lopez – Morgan (2002)

Opens our discussion of creativity, to give the tone for what creativity is and how it
develops. In this section, we discuss the development of creativity and creative skills, then
look at the role of the teacher and creative curriculum.
➢ THE DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVITY

Creativity is the ability to have new ideas, to be original and imaginative, and to make new
adaptations on old ideas. Inventors, composers, and designers are creative people, as are
those who paint and dance, write speeches, or create curriculum for children.
➢ THEME FRIENDSHIP
Everyone has a name and Animals and pets can be Friends enjoy doing things
likes to have it used. your friends. for one another.
Friendships song's using Children have an Children respond to bring a
children's name. opportunity to bring small friend with someone means
house pets to school to (Teachers write down
share with rest of class. children's dictation)
Having friend is fun. To have a friend is to be a You can show someone you
Make a friendship ring: friend. want to be friends.
Each child traces own hands Children respond to: A Write a letter to a friend.
on mural making a circle. friend is someone who... Invite a friend over to play.
(they describe their
impressions while teacher

writes down their words).
Adults can be your friend. Everyone can have a friend. Friends will help you.
Teachers helps child solve Teachers read stories about Form a relay team and have
conflict or gives comfort friendship: will I have a a race.
when child is hurt. friend? (cohen), corduroy
(freeman), play with me( Friends are different : they
ets), little bears friends do not all look the same.
(minarik), a letter to Children respond to tell me
amy(keats), hold my hand( about your friend Alice...
Zolotow), Jessica (Henkes), She.. (Child describe a friend
Harry & Willie & as teachers write the words)
Carrothead( caseley).
Each person is something
special and unique.
Make a friend puppet with
paper plate and tongue
depressor handles. Children
decorates it with felt piece
and yarn to look like a
friend.
• Definition and Steps.

Creative thinking is a cognitive process, expressed by children in all developmental areas.
Picture the two major way of thinking as vertical and lateral. Vertical thinking involves
learning more about something and tends to lead toward and answer. It's also known as
convergent thinking and it is used when asked, “what shape is this block?” Lateral thinking is
a process used to find the creative solution or unusual idea. Such Divergent thinking tends
to broaden the field of answers as when responding to “how many different ways can you
surprise your mother?”
Creativity engages certain parts of the brain the left hemisphere controls the right side of
the body and control such operations as concrete thinking, systematic planning, language,
and more rational and cognitive Parys of thinking. It is the right brain that engages in more
spontaneous ideas and thinks in nonverbal intuitive ways. Of course, we need both sides to
engage to develop, bit clearly, the right side is the creative information processor.
The process of creating follows a four predictable patterns, although there as many
variations on theme as there are children and art experiences.
• Preparation Gathering materials and ideas to begin

• Incubation Letting ideas cook and develop.
• Illumination The a-ha moment when everything gels the light bulb turning on.
• Verification When exhilaration has passed, and only time will confirm the effort.
➢ Expression through the arts.

Whether the sweeping motion of the brush onto an casel, pounding the first onto clay or
rhythmic scissoring, art is physical activity. Art maybe individual experiences but in the early
childhood classroom, it is a social one as well. Children learn how to interact with others
when sharing materials, taking turns, and exchanging ideas. Art reflects what the child
knows, planning and organizing, revising and finishing are all cognitive task. Moreover, early
childhood professionals can encourage children to talk about their process, which makes
creating art a language activity as well.
Rhoda Kellog, in her seminal work on children’s art (1969) describe the developmental
stages of art after having analysed literally millions of piece of children’s art from around the
world over a 20 period.
Placement stage: Scribble; age 2-3
Shape Stage: Vague shapes; ages 2-4; actual shapes, 3-5
Design Stage: Combined shapes, ages 3-5; mandalas and suns, ages 3-5.
Pictorial Stage: People, ages 4-5; beginning recognizable art, ages 4-6; later recognizable
art, ages 5-7
Children artistic creation may be similar in its stages (see figure 14-16) bit are unique
expressions of each child's creativity.
The roots of creativity reach into infancy because it’s every individual’s unique and creativity
process to explore and understand the world.
INFANTS creativity is seen in their efforts when theu touch and move.
TODDLERS begin to scribble, build, and move for the pure physical sensation of
movement.
YOUNG PRESCHOOLERS create as they more try to control such as scribbling with
purpose or bobbing and jumping for music.
OLDER PRESCHOOLERS enjoy their budding mastery. Their drawing and structures take
on some basic forms, and they repeat movement deliberately, while dancing or when
they pretend fighting.
FIVE TO 8 YEAR OLDS have advance motor control and hand eye coordination, so their
drawings are representational and Pictorial, their dramatic play more cohesive.
➢ ART EDUCATION
When Howard Gardner began his studies of intelligence, he became intrigued with artistic
capacity. Project Zero is a program that has studied intelligence, the arts, and education for
the past 30 years (Gardner, 1993) and has identified four key ideas about art education.
1) In the early childhood years, production of art ought to be central. Children need
to work directly with the materials.
2) The visual arts ought to be introduce by someone who can think visually or
spatially. An early childhood education team ought to be diverse enough to have
someone with this intelligence om staff.
3) Whenever possible, artistic learning should be organized around meaningful
projects. Both the projects approach and emergent curriculum address this.
4) Artistic learning must entail emotional reflection and personal discovery along
with a set of skills. Integration and development is encouraged.
Taken together these observation help teachers create developmentally appropriate
practices. Of you work with infants or toddlers be sure to help children explore materials
and places with all their senses, and expect scribbling by 15 to 20 months. Young pre-
schoolers work in manipulating tools and materials, discovering what can be done and
needing lots of repetition. Do not expect much concern about the final product. By 4 to 6
years of age children's art becomes more symbolic and planned, more detailed work with
forms and shapes may be seen. Children become interested in what they are doing and how
turns out.
Giving art its place in early childhood curriculum requires space, time, and attention. An art
centre (Schirrmacher&Fox, 2009) is...
▪ An artist’s studio
▪ Conveniently located and easily accessible
▪ Well stocked with developmentally appropriate materials.
▪ Orderly and organized.
▪ A place with rules and limits.
STAGES OF CHILDREN’S ART

1. Scribbling
2. Drawing a single shape
3. Combining single shapes into designs.
4. Drawing mandala, mandolins, and sun figures
5. Drawing a human figure with limbs and torso
Basic categories of art materials should include tools for mark marking papers in variety of
size, shapes, and textures, modeling and molding materials such as play dough, and clay,
items for cutting, fastening, and attaching such as scissors and strings, items for painting
and collage items (see chapter 9 and figure 14-17).
Merely labelling an activity as art is no guarantee that the activity has artistic merit. Some
activities masquerade as creative and should be avoided. As Schirrmacher (2009) states.
Crafts are often given as holiday gifts. Most parents would be delighted to receive a
paperweight or pencil holder constructed by their child. Although it's important to please
parents, it is equally important to meet the creative needs of children. Providing for child
input, planning, decision making, and creative processing guaranteed that each finished
product will be as unique and individual as the child who produced it.
Taking the time to talk with families about children's art and activities help them appreciate
the unique nature of children creations.
➢ CREATIVE SKILLS
There are six characteristics common to creative people, fostering these skills encourage
creativity.
➢ Flexibility and Fluency.

Flexibility and Fluency are creative skills that allow for creative responses. Flexibility is the
capacity to shift from one idea to another, Fluency is the ability to produce many ideas. How
many ways you can move from one side of the room to another? Is a question likely to
produce many different ideas, one example of Fluency. Children learning flexibility when
they must think of another way to share the wagons when taking turns does not work.
➢ Sensitivity
Creativity involves a high degree of sensitivity to one’s self and one’s mental images.
Creative people from an early age, seem to be aware of the world around them, how things
smell, feel, and taste. They are sensitive to mood, texture, and how they feel about
someone or something. Creative people notice details how a pinecone attached to the
branch is detail the creative person does not overlook.
A special aspect of this skill is sensitivity to beauty. Also known as aesthetic, this sensitivity
to what is beautiful is emphasized(such as Regio Emilia) in some programs, and some
cultures such as (tokonoma, an alcove dedicated to display in Japanese homes). Teachers
can ask the families of children in their care about special places, objects, and rituals that
celebrate beauty and help children acquire am aesthetic interest in their environment.
Children have an awareness of and a value for their natural environment and what is
aesthetically pleasing. Creative children take delight and satisfaction in making images
comes to life with their careful perspective and observations (see figure 14-18). Their
creative response is in the way they paint a picture, dance with streamers, or find a solution
to a problem.
➢ Imagination/Originality
Imagination is natural part of the creative process. Children use their imagination to develop
their creativity in several ways.
❖ Role Playing
In taking on another role, children combine their knowledge of the real world with their
internal images. The child becomes a new character a d that role comes to life.
Image making
When children create a rainbow with a hose or with paints, they are adding something of
their own to their understanding of that visual image. In dance children use their
imagination ad they pretend to be objects or feelings, images brought to life
❖ Constructing
In building and constructing activities, children seem to be re-creating an image they have
about tall buildings, garages, or farms. In the process of construction, however, children do
not intend that the end product resemble the building itself, their imagination allows them
to experiment with size, shapes, and relationships.
➢ A willingness to take risk/Elaboration

People who are willing to break the ordinary mind-set and push the boundaries in defining
and using ordinary objects, materials, and ideas are creative people. They take risk.
Openness to thinking differently or seeing things differently is essential to creativity. When
children create, they are revealing themselves. Art for instance, is a form of cultural
communications, one of the basic language skills children need to participate in a multi
cultural world. Increasing opportunities for creative expressions allows for nonverbal
response and success without directions. It encourages children (and families) to share
themselves in enjoyable ways. It is, therefore, a good way to teach culture and learn about
each other in a relaxed, accepting atmosphere.
Self esteem is a factor in risk taking because people who are tied to watch people other
thinks of them are more likely to co form rather that follow their intuitive and creative
impulses. People usually do not like to make mistakes or be ridiculed, therefore, they avoid
taking risk. When a child is relaxed and not anxious about being judge by others, creativity is
expressed.
➢ Using Self as a Resource

Creative people who are aware of themselves and confident in their abilities to draw on
their perceptions, questions and feelings. They know they are their richest source of
inspirations. Those who excel in creative productivity have a great deal of respect for
themselves, and they use the self as a resource.
➢ Gathering Experience
Children need experience to gain skills in using materials creatively. They must learn how to
hold a paint brush before they can paint a picture, once they know how to paint, then can
be creative in what they paint. Teachers of young children sometimes overlook the fact that
children need competence with the tools to be creative with them. A sensitive individual
demonstration on proper use of a water colour brush, sand paper, or ink roller can expand a
child's ability to create and eliminate needles frustration and disappointment that results in
dashed off work and going up. The teachers of Reggio Emilia, for instance demo9how to use
so that the children can then make outstanding creations. Anecdotes from highly creations
accomplished people in creative endeavours. (Pianist, mathematicians, Olympic swimmers)
highlight the value of long term systematic instruction in a sort of apprenticeship with
inspiring teachers as well as parents who are committed to assist. Vygotsky’s scaffolding
applies in the art and can provide the initial palette of creative activities so the can dabble
and become experienced. When the skills of the medium is mastered, the child is ready to
create.
Adapting art for children with special needs

Visual
Verbally describe materials and how they might be used. Provide a tray that outlines the
visual boundaries.
Auditory
Model the process, facing the child and using gestures for emphasis.
Use sign language as needed.
Physical
Make sure there is a clear path to the art centre.
Provide adaptive art tools such as chunky crayons or large markers.
Attention-deficit and/or behavioural
Provide children with their own materials and workspace, minimizing waiting and crowding.
EFFECTIVE APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM FOR CREATIVE GROWTH

Provide continuous availability, abundance, and variety of materials
As is done in Reggio Emilia (see chapter 10). Although you may not have a special art
teacher (atelierista) you can create a studio like are stocked with art material and provide
more experienced adult that can help children excel in creating.
Give children regular creative opportunities to experience and the skill necessary to be
creative.
Children need frequent occasions to be creative to function in a highly creative manner.
Encourage Divergent thinking.

Once you have presented the materials, try to forget how you intended them to be used.
When there are no right or wrong answers, children are free to create. Avoid models,
making things for children to copy. It insults children and can make them feel inadequate in
the face of something you can do so much better.
Help foster conversation on issues and seeking solutions to problems

Teacher: how do you think we could share the swings?
David: the kids who give me a turn can come to my birthday party.
Sabrina: no! We will have to make a waiting list.
Xenia: only girls can use the swings, they boys can have all the cars.
Federico: buy a new swing set.
Talk with young children about what they create

Whether it is their artwork, table toy creations, or dramatic play sequences, talk helps
creativity considerably. Rather than approach children’s work with compliments,
judgements or even questions, Schirrmacher amd Fox (2009) recommend that you.
• Allow children to go about their artistic discoveries without your comparing,
correcting, or projecting yourself into their art.
• Shift from searching for representation in children’s art to a focus on the abstracts,
design qualities.
• Use reflective dialogue.
• Smile, pause, and say nothing at first.
Allow children to take the lead in their creative works from start to finish.
Adults do not need to take over at any point particularly at the end with questions. (what is
it?) or praise (I like it!). If a child seems to want more response, comment on the colour
(what a lot of blue you used) texture (I see wiggly lines all down one side) or the child’s
effort ( you really work on this painting huh!?)
Integrate creativity and learning in the classroom

Early childhood theorist from Dewey and Piaget to Montessori and Malaguzzi. (see
chapter 1) have advocated multisensory learning through experimentation and discovery.
Teacher timing and attitudes stimulate creativity.
Do not delay; children want to see immediate results on their act and own ideas now.
Teacher timing and attitudes are important in stimulating creative development.

Give plenty of time for a dramatic theme to develop, to pursue the props needed, or to find
the players and audience.
CURRICULUM PLANNING FOR CREATIVE GROWTH

An appropriate approach to creativity in the curriculum will emphasized children’s self

expression in a number of ways.
Setting
The setting provide an environment for creative endeavours – the centre for activities, walls
for displays, and areas for supplies. Children are motivated to try new ways to use materials
when a project is flexible and challenging.
Indoors, every area have the potential for creativity.
The arts. A wide variety of materials and opportunities to choose how they are use is the
basis of the creative process. An open table with a shell of simple, familiar materials that can
be combined in many ways leads to inventiveness. Two year old like crayons, paste, and
colour paper pieces, 3 to 5 year olds enjoy the additions of markers, string, hole punches,
and scissors, and tape. Older children can manage staplers rulers, and protractors. Plenty of
paper such recycle computer paper and card boards, round out an open ended, self help art
shelf. More organized art activities can also be offered, particularly for the preschool child's
process, rather than an end product or model. Avoid duplicated, photocopied, or
mimeograph sheets, cut and paste activities, tracking patterns, colouring book pages, dot to
dot books, and any art projects that are based on a model for children to copy or imitate. As
they approach the primary years, children become interested in what they creations looks
like and they are ready for practical help and advice for getting started.
Block/Manipulatives
Children use their imagination when blocks become castles, tunnels corals, and swamps.
These areas encourage creativity when children have enough materials of one kind to really
make something, one long block is not just enough for a road. Also creations have sense of
Permanence when they are noted and kept. Sketching or photographing a block structure,
attaching signs, (including taking dictation) for the day, even rethinking, clean up
periodically shows how valuable these creations are.
Discovery/Science
Building geoboards or making tangrams and cube art blend math and art. Art activities, such
as colour mixing, dissolving powder paint in water, and having water available with clay, can
lead children to discover scientific principles. Natural materials can be used for rubbings,
mobiles and prints. Colouring material during a litter walk makes interesting and informative
collages.
Dramatic Play
The dramatic arts offer opportunities for children to express themselves. Every unit in the
dramatic play corner brings out children's interpretation of their world whether it is a
house, shoe store, market, or a camp out, dinosaur cave or space shuttle. Favourite books
and stories can be acted out in the dramatic play area. Start with a simple nursery rhyme,
and move to short stories with a few characters, simple plots, and manageable speaking
lines.
Language/Library
The book nook can be a place for teachers to ask open-ended questions for fun and
ponderings. What if you were a twin? What would you wear or eat? Where would you
live?.. Is a social creation... If i were a hat I would... is a physical one.
Outdoors, creativity happens. Large hallow blocks can become a 2 stairway, and wagons and
carts can become free engines, bus, doll carriage, moving vans, or trucks. Dancing with
ribbons, making a banner for a parade, and rearranging equipment to make a tumbling or
obstacles course all combine children's motor skill with music for creative growth. Sand
water and mud provide place for children to dig, haul, manipulate, and control in any
number of ways.
Daily Schedule
Teachers can apply their creativity to many routines situations. Children looking for a lost
mirror to organized a" hunt" pretending to be a vacuum cleaners, dump truck, or robot gets
the blocks picked up faster. Saying goodbye can be exercise in creativity : the child say, see
you later alligator, and the adults can make up a silly questions. Another day, the child and
family member can reverse roles.
Creative “thinking games” an be part of any transition time. Because teachers are looking
for unusual responses, children stay engaged and the game says fresh over time.
• What would happen if... is the prompt: provide ending such as..... Refrigerators eat
foods?.... Bath tubs can talk?. .. You could be visible?
• Just suppose ask children to come up with ending to such stories as you found a flying
magic carpet. Where would you go? What would happen? Or you could be any
animal?
• Make it better uses a prop. The teacher brings a stuffed animals, race car, or any
other familiar stories. Pass it around carefully and then ask. How could we make it a
better toy? What could we do to make it more fun to play with?
Creativity does not respond well to the clock. Three issues, routines, transitions, and groups,
must be handled so as not to interrupt children too often.
Children’s creative expressions in group is enhanced through music. Music is a universal
language that develops every aspects of psychosocial development. It allows the
expressions of emotions and provides the opportunity to take roles as a delightful time to
create with movement.
There is a kind of developmental sequence in the creative expression of music.
• The very young child is receptive to music responding by listening, singing, and
making noise with instruments.
• Pre-schoolers move to rhythmic music, often singing spontaneously in play and
responding to repeated songs or repetitious phrasing. Their interests in musical
instruments precedes their skills, and they often need instruments to be introduced
and their proper used to demonstrate.
• Older pre-schoolers and school age children are more accurate in matching their
pitch and tempo to the group or played music.
Music can set the tone or nap time, signals that a clean up time is at hand, summoned
children to a group, and offer culture experience that are meaningful and enjoyable. For
instance, New York is often a noisy time; it can be celebrated by making ankle bells or doing
a sri Lankan dance or making a west Indian conga line. In waldorf schools, music is quite
important. Children are engaged in daily in eurythmic exercise (develop by Steiner, see
chapter 1).
Focus on skills
The wide range of skills necessary for creative development can be supported throughout
the early childhood program. The creative thinker is one who finds many ways to solve a
problem, approach a situation, use materials, and interact with others. The teachers role is
one of supporting imaginative use of equipment and using a multisensory approach to
deepen learning.
Music and movement: Stages and activities
Stages of musical Development Appropriate music movement activities
2 years old Bounce to music with different tempos.

Use their bodies in response to music Repetitive song like “itsy bitsy spider” or
can learn short simple songs “if you’re happy and you know it”
Enjoy experimenting with sounds Pound on milk cartoons, oatmeal boxes

Make shakers with gravels in shampoo
bottles
3 year olds Select the songs that include their name

Can recognize and sing part of tunes such as “Do you know the muffin man”
Use Ella Jenkins recording or try going on a
Walk, run, jump to music bear hunt
Make up their own songs Starts old macdonalds and let them make
their own additions
dance with scarves or use shakers to sing
along with a child.
4 year olds Be a flying car, trees swaying in the wind,
Can grasp basic musical concepts like sing “Big, bigger, biggest” with variations
tempo, volume, pitch Change where is thumbkin to where is Fi-
Love silly songs to and improvise with their ideas
Accompany music with instruments, green

Prefer "active" listening grass grew all around with action.
5 to 6 year olds Use a parachute to music Try “did you
Enjoy singing and moving with a group feed my cow”
Enjoy call and response songs Be sure to ask the group and use them in
Have a fairly established musical selecting music activities.
preferences
7 and 8 year olds Use large word charts. Do partner games
Are learning to read lyrics Children pick instruments in pairs.
Enjoy musical duets with friends
Themes
As teachers plan curriculum around a theme, they keep in mind what creative skills can be
developed. Figure 14-20 charts the theme of green and growing things and can bring out
child’s creative nature as well as social responsibility by promoting ecological responsibility
through the arts and nurturing an environmental and social ethic. Experiences in nature
support creative learning in all developmental domains. They build a community, offer
multisensory experiences, and have been shown to reduce the serenity of some symptoms
of attention deficit-hyper – activity disorder ( wirth & Rpsenour, 2012).
One teacher brought to her second grade class an activity from an acting workshop known
as the “emotion map”. After leading a discussion about imaginative maps (the hobbit, Harry
Potter) , she listed their suggestions (slump, swamp, guilt, garage, boring boulevard, bridge
of joy). Rolling out a piece of paper on the floor, they began to sketch and talk. Once the
map is made and elaborately decorated, the students use it to plot how they felt daily using
a post it they had drawn of themselves. New ideas cropped up, children wanted “emotion
maps” made into books for journaling and to plan for performances about different
emotions.
A preschool teaching team noticed the children's interests in shoes. They helped the teacher
brainstorm what they know about shoes and what they want to learn about them. The
group built a shoe store, created a song and game called "whose shoes are you"? And made
elaborate spiritual "houses" out of old donated adult shoes moulded after "I know an old
woman who lived in a shoe" the project lasted nearly a month!.
Theme Green and Growing Themes
Outdoor Activities
❖ Plant a garden in the corner of the yard, in a old barrel, or in box flat on a table.
Children learn through experimentation why some things grow and why others
don't. Make space for compost heap.
❖ Add wheelbarrow to the transportation toys.
❖ Take a field trip to a farm, at planting time if possible, or a garden centre.
❖ Add gardening tools to the sand area, with proper supervision, children can see how
trowels, hand claws, rakes, and shovels can be used to create new patterns in the
sand and mud.
❖ Plan group games that emphasized green and growing things. Older children can run
wheelbarrow races, using one child to a wheelbarrow and another as a driver.
❖ Play musical vegetable with a large cards or chalk drawings. Dance with gourds,
coconut instruments, sugar cane rhythmic sticks.
❖ Have children select a potted plant (ha older children pick a partner) them have
them draw, paint, or collage what they see. Let children look, talk, and compare then
make another creation.
Indoor Activities
❖ Leaf rubbing, painting with surplus apples, onions, carrots, potatoes, lemons, orange,
and celery and painting with pine boughs are ways children can create arts with
green and growing things: make cornhusk dolls, avocado seeds porcupine.
❖ Book accessories might include blue felt forms for lakes, hay for corals and barns.
❖ In the Manipulative area, match a photo of familiar plants with the sample of the
plant. Add sorting trays with various kinds of seeds to count, feel, mix, and match.
Match pictures of eggs, bacons, milk and cheese, and other animals form which they
come.
❖ In the science area, grow alfalfa sprouts, and mung beans. Let children mix them in
salads and feed to classroom pets. As the sprouts grow, children can chart the
growth. This activity can lead charting their own development, comparing it when
with they were infants.
❖ The dramatic play centre can be transformed into a grocery store to emphasized the
food we buy to eat, how iy helps us and how good nutrition is important. Other
dramatic play unit is a florist shop or nursery, stocked with garden gloves, seed
packets, peat pots, and sun hats.
❖ The language are can be stock with book about how plants, baby animals, and
children grow. In small groups children can respond to "when I plant a seed" or
"when I was a baby" to stimulate creative expression.
❖ Songs and finger plays helps focus on green and growing things, children growth and
animals. The Green Grass Grow all around can be sketched by the teacher so that
the children will have visual cues to each successive verse. A favourite finger play
"way up in the apple tree" can be adapted to a number of fruits and vegetables.
Curriculum for Spiritual Development

Is rarely discussed in early childhood or developmental text. In the United states where the
separation of Church and state is mandated, the public classroom has avoided involvement
in things spiritual or religious. Under school are not under such legal restraints and
many(see chapter 2) actively support are not sponsored by faith base organizations. Still,
the spiritual side of formal schooling is usually left to religious institutions and families.
Issues to consider
Often adults tend to see children as not particularly spiritual. Without higher reasoning or
abstract thinking skills, young children is seen as not able to have spiritual life. Moreover.
Manu think of spirituality solely in terms of religions: this narrow focus misses the mark with
children in the early years. By seeing children as faulty thinkers (because they cannot
articulate or conceptualize like adults) or by focusing only on organized religion and its ways
of explanation, we may overwhelm or overlook children genuine or spiritual experiences.
Some of the earliest contributors to the field have mentioned spiritual development.
Froebel saw the child as having an innate spiritual capacity. Education was meant to build
on the living core of the child intrinsic dimensions of selfhood and felt of children of all
levels of development were capable of spiritual experience. Montessori wrote (Wolf, 2000).
If education recognize the intrinsic value of the child’s personality and provides an
environmental suited to spiritual growth, we have the revelation of the entirely new child
whose astonishing characteristic can eventually contribute to the betterment of the world.
It would appears that profound level of spiritual reality is accessible even to the youngest
human being... These experiences typically involves unity, joy, mystery (Dillon, 2000). Take
for instance, the children’s awe as they see a banana slug inching its way up a redwood tree,
or the wonder in their eyes at, the many colours of autumn maple leaves, their gasp when
they found a dead bird, or the sheer joy or the outstretched arms (and tongues!) to catch
snowflakes.
Saxton (2004) reminds us of the religious or spiritual influences to the child’s cultural
identity. Robert Coles (1990) conducted an inquiry of spiritual life of children in the United
states. Central and South of America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He concluded that
children are seekers, as young pilgrims well aware that life is a finite journey and as anxious
to make sense of it as those 9f us who are father along in the time allotted us. White
Gardner did not commit for the spiritual intelligence, he did suggest an existential
intelligence would be a useful construe in identifying the ability to perceive and considered
issues and phenomena outside direct sensory experience (see chapter 4,10 and 12).
Spiritual development in the early childhood program includes the child’s deep experience
and with self in the world, with the mysterious and invisible, and with the joy and pain that
real life offers (see DAP box).
DAP acknowledging the Spirit

As mentioned earlier U. S education is mandate to keep issues of church and state separate,
in order not to endorse a particular religions. At the same time DAP encourages family
traditions and priorities to have a place in early childhood education. And spiritual
development is part of the psychosocial domains.
Early childhood programs address general spiritual development in these four ways.
Teaching about right and wrong

Caring adults contribute to children's moral education by encouraging integrity. Children
need to learn issues of right and wrong in a caring setting, balancing their wishes with those
of others.
Matters of Death
For children, death ha powerful and continuing meaning (Coles, 1990). Whether it be a class
pet, am accident or injury to a classmates or family member, even a teachers absence due
to illness, children's curiosity about death is inevitable.
Peace Education
Children need guidance (see chapter 7) and a safe and peaceful place to solve problems
non-violently with their peers. At first they require a great deal pf adult support and input in
negotiating with their problems, and often, it is the adults who guide the discussion. A
peace table is one tool use as part of overarching approach that social interaction that
encourages children to peacefully interact with others. This method encourages children to
diversity and to attempt to understand differing perspectives. This approach helps children
to see all problems as solvable and scaffolds children in their attempts to "solve the
problem. Within in environment where adults assist children to empowered to actively
solve interpersonal problems, children quickly become peacemakers (Warfor, 2011).
Love of Nature
One way to connect with children Spiritually is through a love of nature and appreciation of
the environment. Give children the first hand experiences of a seed sprouting to plant, a live
animal to care for, a running stream to play in, and a sunset to watch, and they get closer to
their spiritual side.
The Teacher's Role

Teachers are often unsure to their role in spiritual development. Juggling what is
appropriate and lawful with what is respectful of diverse family values and affiliations is
difficult. A teachers identity and beliefs must be considered. Keep in mind the difference
between nurturing Spiritual growth and passing on a religion. As Elkin’s (1992) explained.
Spiritually can be used in either a narrow sense or a broad one. In a narrow sense
spiritually is often used to indicate a particular set of religious beliefs. However, can also be
used in a much broader sense. Individuals who are in their everyday lives, exemplify the
highest of human qualities such as love, forgiveness, and generosity might also be said to be
spiritual. It is an spirituality in a broad in nondenominational sense that I believed can be
fostered by educational practices.
Families provide vital ingredient in the development of children's spirituality.
Working with families around with spiritual issues is a delicate matter. Making clear your
distinction between religion and spirituality helps parents see your priorities. Emphasized
that you are thinking about the adults they may become and that you're trying to give them
a framework to face the state of the world.
A child's spiritual growth can be measured in terms of his/her ability to trust, to give
love willingly, and accept self and others. Families may disagree with the teaching of some
of these concepts, but the dialogue is useful. In the end, teachers usually find that there's
more agreement about these kinds of ideas than they expected. One made clear, parents
often have questions themselves about how to promote family spirituality.
Whether at home or in the classroom, spiritual nurturing does not happen according
to the schedule and does not entail a sense of teaching in sense of formal sense. Spiritual
nurturing can never be reduce to a sets of techniques or a routine curriculum. It can only
flow freely from the teacher’s own inner essence and from his or her beliefs that each child
is truly a spiritual being (Wolf, 2000). Teachers and families have something to share, a way
of setting in the environment and the tone that opens up the process of self knowledge,
morality and relationship with others, and a reverence for life and spiritual experience.
Children as a Spiritual Resource

Children as a spiritual resource are active participants in their experience and learning. As
the teachers plan, he or she must also be prepared to listen and sit back. Interaction with
children present us adults with the opportunity to regain a sense of connectedness,
spontaneity, emotional sensitivity, philosophical wonder and mystery, a. D attentiveness to
value that we have long since left behind (Dillon, 2000). Time to wonder, to be an awe, and
or reflect need to happen and be in place in a program. A hurried or overscheduled program
is unlikely to prov8de such times.
The basic curriculum of early childhood program is to provide every child with repeated
experiences of being loved, accepted, and understood, of finding people trustworthy and
dependable, and of discovering the world to be a place that loves him/her and cares for
him/her deeply. Spirituality is concerned with directly experiencing life via intuition and
feelings. Early childhood educators can set the stage for these experiences in many ways
(see figure 12-21).
Nurturing Spiritual Growth

Quiet Corner The Garden
Set a side a corner space or alcove, Plant seeds together, ask how things
perhaps behind a shelf that holds the grow and how could a seed do that.
fish tanks. Place a small table and chair Check as they sprout. Plant a button, a
where a child can sit alone, gaze at the seed, and a penny - and see the power
water or out the window. of the seed.
Kindness Plant I spy
Put a live plant next to a basket pf Play the game of " I spy" with the
artificial flowers. Each time a child children you have observed helping
receives a kindness, they put a flower in others. I spy someone who helped
the plant. Danny and clean up the paint he spilled.
The Peace Rose The Universe Star
Keep lively silk rose in a vase within Make a star in your classroom, taking
children's reach. Whenever two children turns, each child carries the star home,
have a quarrel, one of them, or a third waits for a clear nights, and goes outside
child, collects the peace rose. Each child
a dark with parent and look at the night
holds the rose while talking; once they
reach solution or simply get over it, sky. When the child brings back the star,
together they put their hands on the take time as a class to talk about the
stem of the rose and say "we declare wonder and size of the universe.
peace".
Guided Meditation A silence Game
Have the children sit or lie down quietly At a time when a children are engaged
and close their eyes. Lead them through and behaving well, give them a new
a reflection, asking each child to think challenge. Ask them to all stop talking
about his/her heart, the place where
and sit perfectly still for several minutes.
love lives.
Each time you initiate this activity,
lengthen the time. When the time is up,
children report what they heard.
SUMMARY
LO 1
The psychosocial domain is the broadest developmental domain, encompassing effective
elements of emotional, social, creative, and spiritual growth, emphasizing the development
of a sense of self and identity. Psychosocial development is at the centre of the early
childhood curriculum. Planning for emotional, social, creative, and spiritual growth involves
am understanding of how each develops in the young child and how they are interrelated.
Curriculum development for psychosocial growth calls on teacher to play a supportive role,
facilitating children's involvement with the materials and each other. Only then can children
discover themselves, explore their relationships, develop their ability to use their
imagination and resources, and explore deeper questions of self and spirit. Children learn
many skills in this areas as they interact with each other, with adults, and in the
environment.
LO 2
The central elements of children's emotional growth involve the development of emotions,
the skills of dealing with feelings, handling change, exercising judgement, enjoyment of
power, and resilience and effective approaches to curriculum that teach these skills.
LO 3
The central elements of children's social growth involve the development of social
competence and peer relationships and the social skills of social intelligence amd those
learned of adults and children, both with peers and as individuals amd effective approaches
for curriculum that teach these skills.
LO 4
The central elements of children's creative growth involve the development of creativity and
its expressions through the arts, as well as the creative skills of flexibility and fluency,
sensitivity, imagination/Originality, risks taking, using self as a resource, and gathering
experiences and effective approaches for curriculum that teach these skills.
LO 5
The central elements of children's spiritual growth issues are the separation of church and
state, matters or right/ wrong life / death, peace, education and nature as well as bow
children as spiritual resources themselves.
LO 6
Emotional intelligences are special topic of psychosocial curriculum. Daniel Goleman
published emotional intelligences in 1995, which defined a new kind of intelligence as the
capacity of recognizing feelings of self and others and for managing emotions well within
the self and in relationship to other people. Five basic competencies within emotional
intelligences are self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
KEY TERMS
Psychosocial Super hero Reciprocal
domains Imaginary Social skills
Effective companions Social cognition
Four "I" s Resilience Social action
Emotional Social referencing Convergent thinking
intelligences Socialization Divergent thinking
Basic emotions Social competence Flexibility
Complex emotions Sociocentric Fluency
Empathy Peer interaction Aesthetic
Positive stress Undifferentiated
Self Regulation Unilateral
Post Test
Give the right answers in each number.
Multiple choice
1. has a high priority in the program. The room and yard are busy
places, with children moving about and talking among
themselves and with adults.
a. Independence c. Interaction
b. Self-management d. Initiative
2. Self-management tasks of dressing, eating, and toileting are
given an important place in the curriculum.
a. Self management c. Internalizing messages
b. Independence d. Initiative
3. Children are encouraged to initiate their learning, to make
contact with others, to take action, and to make choices.
a. Making choice c. Interaction
b. Self-management d. Initiative
4. Refers to an individual's sense Of personal worth and an
acceptance of whom one is that helps one make judgments as
they confront the world.
a. Self Regulation c. Self esteem
b. Self-management d. Self Confidence
5. Is an essential part decision making. Children are bombarded
with choices in America—too many choices, some people say.
a. Making choice c. Initiative
b. Self-management d. Independence
a. Internalizing messages c. Self-management
b. Making choice d. Initiative
a. Self Regulation c. Self esteem
b. Self management d. Self confidence
8. It is the capacity to shift from one idea to another
a. Imagination/Originality c. Sensitivity
b. Flexibility d. Fluency
9. It is the ability to produce many ideas.
10. It is natural part of the creative process. Children use
their imagination to develop their creativity in several
ways.
11. creativity is seen in their efforts when their touch and

move.
a. Toddler c. Five to eight year olds
b. Infants d. pre-schoolers
12. enjoy their budding mastery. Their drawing and structures

take on some basic forms, and they repeat movement
deliberately, while dancing or when they pretend fighting.
13. begin to scribble, build, and move for the pure physical s
sensation of movement.
14. have advance motor control and hand eye coordination,
so their drawings are representational and Pictorial, their
dramatic play more cohesive.
15. All are DON’TS in arranging a social environment except.
a. Make-teacher child interaction to be all about
misbehaviour.
b. Motivate children by indirect disapproval.
c. Lose your sense of humour.
d. Respect individual timetable and feelings.

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Planning For The Heart And Soul:

Psychosocial Development In Action

NAEYC: Standards for professional development

➢ LO 2 Examine the central elements of children's emotional growth and

➢ LO 3 Examine the central elements of children's social growth and

➢ LO 4 Examine the central elements of children's spiritual growth and

➢ LO 5 Discuss emotional intelligences as a special topic of psychosocial

The development of the psychosocial Domain

Defining Psychosocial Experiences

Growing a Sense of Self

Toddler Awareness Self regulation

Kindergarten Self-in-the-world Feeling effective Managing failure/mistakes,

Primary Competence managing , failures ,mistake finding their

What Research Tells Us?

• With infants and toddlers, the emphasis is on relationships.

The "Four I's" "Four I's" refer to four components

Emotional Skill Development

1. Identity: Look at what I can do, the noise I can

Deal with feelings

Child: "And she splashed me two times!"

Curriculum: Activity (Use of Sense)

Curriculum for Emotional Growth

The emotional brain scans everything happening to us from moment to moment to

Is what happening right now. If so amygdala in calls an alarm to declare an emergency

Learning to Read Feelings

changing nature of feelings is also part of acceptance; it can be a source of comfort

Teachers can help children accept change in several ways:

Ability to Exercise Judgment

Internalizing Messages Internalizing messages is second part of exercising judgment.

Teacher can encourage this process by:

Enjoying One's Self and One's Power

Investigating power and autonomy

Superhero Play :Exercising Power Responsibly

• Limit the place and time for superhero play.

• Give children control over their lives.

1. Acquiring good patterns is an adult's first step.

Reflect on these questions:

• Are you a person who labels others?

Curriculum Planning for Emotional Development

The Teacher's Roles in Children's Anger Management

Fear: There's•a Nightmare in My Closet (Mayer); Storm in the Night (Stolz)

Direct Problem Solving: How to Improve a Boring Playground

Indirect Problem Solving: When Ning Hated School

Curriculum for Social Growth

Dealing with Changes In the Daily Schedule

The Development of Social Competence

Theme: Who I Am?

Group times: "Head and shoulders"

the development of a sense of community. A program's emotional climate and teacher's

❖ All areas of children's development play a part in learning social skills:

Social Development Timeline

• first encounters mutual inspection

• (10-20 days) Imitation of adults

• Adjustment in behaviour to fit age and behaviour of other

• Friend as someone who will do what you want

There are several components to social competence.

Others, exchange of information, handling aggression.

Common Social Challenges

Talk it out Conflict Resolution

4. choose the idea you both like

Suzanne: OK. Next time, I get to be the teacher.

inclusive classrooms requires teacher awareness and interaction as well as careful

• In their relationship with adults, children learn:

• In their relationship with other children, children learn:

• In a groups children learn:

Skills learned as individual

• To take for responsibility fro self help, self care.

“Mirror Neurons” at work

“Mirror Neurons” A teachers moment by moment actions and interactions with

CURRICULUM APPROACHES FOR SOCIAL GROWTH

PLANNING AND ARRANGING A SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Help Children Develop Trust

ARRANGING A SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

CURRICULUM FOR SOCIAL SKILL ENVIRONMENT

Time Skill Activities

4. Play with mirrors;